SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

An RF power amplifier with inter-metal-shuffled capacitor for inter-stage matching in a digital CMOS process

Feng Xiaoxing, Zhang Xing, Ge Binjie and Wang Xin'an

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Abstract: One challenge of the implementation of fully-integrated RF power amplifiers into a deep submicro digital CMOS process is that no capacitor is available, especially no high density capacitor. To address this problem, a two-stage class-AB power amplifier with inter-stage matching realized by an inter-metal coupling capacitor is designed in a 180-nm digital CMOS process. This paper compares three structures of inter-metal coupling capacitors with metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor regarding their capacitor density. Detailed simulations are carried out for the leakage, the voltage dependency, the temperature dependency, and the quality factor between an inter-metal shuffled (IMS) capacitor and an MIM capacitor. Finally, an IMS capacitor is chosen to perform the inter-stage matching. The techniques are validated via the design and implement of a two-stage class-AB RF power amplifier for an UHF RFID application. The PA occupies 370×200 μm2 without pads in the 180-nm digital CMOS process and outputs 21.1 dBm with 40% drain efficiency and 28.1 dB power gain at 915 MHz from a single 3.3 V power supply.

Key words: power amplifiers

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    Received: 18 August 2015 Revised: 13 February 2009 Online: Published: 01 June 2009

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      Feng Xiaoxing, Zhang Xing, Ge Binjie, Wang Xin'an. An RF power amplifier with inter-metal-shuffled capacitor for inter-stage matching in a digital CMOS process[J]. Journal of Semiconductors, 2009, 30(6): 065001. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/30/6/065001 Feng X X, Zhang X, Ge B J, Wang X. An RF power amplifier with inter-metal-shuffled capacitor for inter-stage matching in a digital CMOS process[J]. J. Semicond., 2009, 30(6): 065001. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/30/6/065001.Export: BibTex EndNote
      Citation:
      Feng Xiaoxing, Zhang Xing, Ge Binjie, Wang Xin'an. An RF power amplifier with inter-metal-shuffled capacitor for inter-stage matching in a digital CMOS process[J]. Journal of Semiconductors, 2009, 30(6): 065001. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/30/6/065001

      Feng X X, Zhang X, Ge B J, Wang X. An RF power amplifier with inter-metal-shuffled capacitor for inter-stage matching in a digital CMOS process[J]. J. Semicond., 2009, 30(6): 065001. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/30/6/065001.
      Export: BibTex EndNote

      An RF power amplifier with inter-metal-shuffled capacitor for inter-stage matching in a digital CMOS process

      doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/30/6/065001
      • Received Date: 2015-08-18
      • Accepted Date: 2008-09-18
      • Revised Date: 2009-02-13
      • Published Date: 2009-07-13

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