A 15.7-dBm 164–270GHz Power Amplifier with Asymmetric Slotline-Based Series-Parallel Combiner in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This article presents a high-power wideband sub-terahertz power amplifier (PA) in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. An asymmetric slotline-based series-parallel combiner (ASSPC) is proposed to enhance the output power and bandwidth. The ASSPC enables low-loss and wideband combining of four differential power cells while facilitating load-pull matching with reduced impedance imbalance between differential transistors. With an aid of the ASSPC, the PA achieves the highest saturated output power (Psat) of 15.7 dBm at 235 GHz and the widest Psat 3-dB bandwidth of 106 GHz among the existing Si-based PAs operating above 200 GHz. It shows a peak gain of 21.2 dB and a wide 5-dB bandwidth of 78 GHz.