IJEM Vol. 15, No. 4, 8 Aug. 2025
Cover page and Table of Contents: PDF (size: 857KB)
PDF (857KB), PP.1-15
Views: 0 Downloads: 0
Microwave, Terahertz, Solid state PA, Power Combiner, SiGe BiCMOS
The Terahertz (THz) spectrum is the next frontier for efficient imaging applications and high-bandwidth wireless communication. A high-powered signal is imperative for the improvement of image resolution. The SiGe HBTs (heterojunction bipolar transistors) low output power level is one of the fundamental difficulties in the development of systems at high frequency and hence the importance of amplification at THz frequency range. This research is about designing, modeling, and simulating a 3-stage, 4-way power combined solid state PA (SSPA). The 3-stage design performance was optimized using a transmission line whose values were chosen optimally to ensure low loss. A single unit of the SSPA contains three stages and by using a splitter and combiner, 4 units of the SSPA were combined to give the desired output power. Simulations were performed using ADS Keysight and a gain of 30dB, saturation power out of 18.847dBm, and PAE (PAE) of 5.7% was achieved. This is a 28.8% increase in gain, an 11.36% increase in PAE, and a 3.3 % increase in saturation power compared to state-of-the-art results.
Oluseun Damilola Oyeleke, Olabode Idowu-Bismark, Dan Ali, Oluwadamilola Oshin, Adedoyin Afolabi, "Design of a 165-178 GHz 4-way Power Combined Amplifier with output Power Greater than 18.8 dBm", International Journal of Engineering and Manufacturing (IJEM), Vol.15, No.4, pp. 1-15, 2025. DOI:10.5815/ijem.2025.04.01
[1]Li, Z., Qi, B., Zhang, X., Zeinola bedinzadeh, S., Sang, L., & Cressler, J. D. (2018). A 0.32-THz SiGe Imaging Array With Polarization Diversity. IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, 8(2), .215–223. doi. 10.1109/tthz.2017.2787958
[2]Bai, P., Zhang, Y., Wang, THZ., Fu, Z., Shao, D., Li, Z., Shen, W. (2019). Broadband THz to NIR up-converter for photon-type THz imaging. Nat Commun, 10(1), 3513. doi. 10.1038/s41467-019-11465-6, . 1–9.
[3]Cooper, K. B., & Chattopadhyay, G. (2014). Submillimeter-Wave Radar. Solid-State System Design and Applications. IEEE Microwave Magazine, 15(7), .51–67. doi. 10.1109/mmm.2014.2356092
[4]Raab, J., Lange, C., Boland, J. L., Laepple, I., Furthmeier, M., Dardanis, E., . . . Huber, R. (2019). Ultrafast two-dimensional field spectroscopy of terahertz intersubband saturable absorbers. Opt Express, 27(3), .2248-2257. doi. 10.1364/OE.27.002248
[5]Golio, J. M. (2008). The Rf and microwave handbook. Rf and microwave circuits, measurements, and modeling. CRC Press.
[6]Ali, A., Yun, J., Giannini, F., Ng, H. J., Kissinger, D., & Colantonio, P. (2020). 168-195 GHz PA With Output Power Larger Than 18 dBm in BiCMOS Technology. IEEE Access, 8, 79299–79309. doi.10.1109/access.2020.2990681.
[7]Golio, J. M. (2008). The Rf and microwave handbook. Rf and microwave circuits, measurements, and modeling. CRC Press.
[8]K. Ning, Y. Fang, M. Rodwell, and J. Buckwalter, “A 130-GHz PA in a 250-nm INP process with 32% PAE,” 2020 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC), 2020.
[9]M. H. Eissa and D. Kissinger, ``A 13.5 dBm fully integrated 200-to-255 GHz power ampli_er with a 4-Way power combiner in SiGe.C BiCMOS,'' in IEEE Int. Solid-State Circuits Conf. (ISSCC) Dig.Tech. Papers, San Francisco, CA, USA, Feb. 2019, pp. 82_84, doi. 10.1109/ISSCC.2019.8662424.
[10]Zhou, P., Chen, J., Yan, P., Chen, Z., Hou, D., & Hong, W. (2019). A 280-325 GHz Frequency Multiplier Chain With 2.5 dBm Peak Output Power. 2019 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC). doi.10.1109/cicc.2019.8780333.
[11]Starke, P., Carta, C., & Ellinger, F. (2020). High-Linearity 19-dB PA for 140-220 GHz, Saturated at 15 dBm, in 130-nm SiGe. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 1–4. doi.10.1109/lmwc.2020.2978397
[12]S. P. Singh, T. Rahkonen, M. E. Leinonen, and A. Parssinen, “A 290 GHz low noise amplifier operating above fmax/2 in 130 nm SiGe technology for sub-thz/thz receivers,” 2021 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC), 2021.
[13]G. Mu and H. Hayashi, “Enhancing PAE of Doherty amplifier by changing power ratio of carrier amplifier and peak amplifier,” 2021 3rd International Conference on Computer Communication and the Internet (ICCCI), 2021.
[14]C. Poole and R. Grammenos, “Correct equations for minimum noise measure of a microwave transistor amplifier,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 1361–1366, 2022.
[15]N. Sarmah, B. Heinemann, and U. R. Pfeiffer, “A 135170 GHz power amplifier in an advanced SiGe HBT technology,” in Proc. IEEE Radio Freq.Integr. Circuits Symp. (RFIC), Jun. 2013, pp. 287290.Oct. 2017, pp. 10211024.
[16]M. Furqan, F. Ahmed, B. Heinemann, and A. Stelzer, “A 15.5-dBm 160-GHz high-gain power amplifier in SiGe BiCMOS technology,”IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 177179, Feb. 2017.
[17]M. Kucharski, H. J. Ng, and D. Kissinger, ``An 18 dBm 155-180 GHz SiGe power amplifier using a 4-Way T-junction combining network,'' in Proc. IEEE 45th Eur. Solid State Circuits Conf. (ESSCIR
[18]Voinigescu, S. (2013). High-frequency integrated circuits. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
[19]D. Mukherjee, V. Kumar, and J. Dhar, “Design of a wideband differential RF-amplifier using indigenous 180nm digital CMOS technology,” 2020 IEEE VLSI DEVICE CIRCUIT AND SYSTEM (VLSI DCS), 2020.
[20]L. Wu, M. Weizel, and J. C. Scheytt, “Above 60 GHz bandwidth 10 GS/s sampling rate track-and-hold amplifier in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology,” 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 2020.
[21]P. Starke, L. Steinweg, C. Carta, and F. Ellinger, “Common emitter low noise amplifier with 19 DB gain for 140 GHz to 220 GHz in 130 nm SiGe,” 2019 International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), 2019.
[22]Z. Griffith, M. Urteaga, P. Rowell, and L. Tran, “A 150-175-ghz 30-DB s PA with 125-MW and 16.2% PAE using INP HBT,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, pp. 1–4, 2022.
[23]Xin Xu, Zhilong Cheng, Zhihao Zhang, Sha Xu, Gary Zhang “A 23-28 GHz GaAs Power Amplifier with Maximum 40.6% PAE Using 4-Way Real Impedance Power Combining Technique” 2024 International Conference on Microwave and Millimeter Wave Technology (ICMMT), pp. 1-6 DOI: 10.1109/ICMMT61774.2024.10672080
[24]Pedro, J.C. and Cabral, P.M., 2015. A simple method to estimate the output power and efficiency load–pull contours of class-B power amplifiers. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 63(4), pp.1239-1249.
[25] D. Wrana et al., “Short range wireless transmission using a 295–315 GHz superheterodyne link targeting IEEE 802.15.3d applications,” in 2021 51st Eur. Microw. Conf. (EuMC), pp. 205–208, 2022.
[26] Z. Griffith, M. Urteaga, and P. Rowell, “A 220-GHz power amplifier with 60-mW output power and 23.5% PAE in 130-nm InP HBT,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Technol. Lett., 2024.
[27] H. Cheng et al., “A terahertz GaN solid-state power amplifier on radial combining technique,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 66, no. 4, p. e34164, 2024.
[28] W. Wang et al., “33.2 A 216-to-226 GHz watt-level GaN solid-state power amplifier,” in 2025 IEEE Int. Solid-State Circuits Conf. (ISSCC), vol. 68, pp. 544–546, 2025.
[29] Y. Nakasha et al., “37.1-dBm W-band power amplifier module using GaN-based HEMTs,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Technol. Lett., 2025.
[30] J. C. Soric et al., “A 92-100 GHz 100W SSPA for the HUSIR deep-space upgrade,” in 2024 54th Eur. Microw. Conf. (EuMC), pp. 820–823, 2024.
[31]Oyeleke, O.D., Usman, A.D., Abubilal, K.A., Bello, H. and Idowu-Bismark, O., 2023. Design of a 175 GHZ SiGe-based voltage-controlled oscillator with greater than 7.6 dBm power. Int J Inf & Commun Technol, 12(2), pp.103-114.