Millimeter-Wave Harmonically-Tuned Silicon Power Amplifiers for High Efficiency

This works demonstrates the feasibility of the inverse-Class-F harmonic tuning approach for mm-wave silicon PAs. This research addresses the challenges and limitations of the high efficiency inverse-Class-F PAs for mm-wave silicon technology. This work proposes different load networks to mitigate the challenges which are verified with implementations at different mm-wave frequencies with the highest power efficiency performances reported so far: PAE= 50% @ 24 GHz, PAE = 43% @ 41 GHz, and PAE = 23% @ 94 GHz. The design methodology and detailed analysis of the proposed load networks presented and verified with implementation and measured results.