A Wideband and Linear 300GHz Power Amplifier in 130nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This article presents an integrated power amplifier operating in the WR3.4 waveguide band between 220 and 325 GHz. The circuit is implemented in an 130nm BiCMOS technology, which offers heterojunction bipolar transistors with ft/fmax of 500/610 GHz. Measurements show a peak gain of 21 dB, an output-referred 1 dB compression point of 11.9 dB and a saturated output power of 13.2 dBm, resulting in a peak power-added-efficiency of 4.7%. The 3 dB bandwidth reaches 96 GHz in large signal operation. The amplifier occupies an extremely compact core area of 280 µm × 150 µm. To the best knowledge of the authors the circuit showcases the highest saturated output power and 1dB compression point among the single core SiGe power amplifiers operating above 200 GHz.