caa a22 4500 606204857 CHVBK 20210128101004.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00034-014-9849-7 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00034-014-9849-7 Analysis and Optimization of Cascode Structure in Power Amplifier for X-Band Phase Array Radar Application [Elektronische Daten] [Jiankang Li, Yong-Zhong Xiong, Yihu Li, Wen Wu] A 7.7-12GHz fully monolithic transformer-coupled cascode power amplifier (PA) was designed for X-band phase array radar application. This PA was fabricated in a 0.25- $$\upmu $$ μ m SiGe BiCMOS technology with chip size of $$2\times 2$$ 2 × 2 mm $$^{2}$$ 2 . The best choice of the cascode topology for PA design is discussed and the possible stability issue of this configuration is analyzed. The distributed capacitor structure which is connected to the base of cascode transistor is proposed to reduce the base series inductance and hence, improve circuit stability and boost gain. Moreover, circuit/layout co-design for above structure is completed through full 3D simulation. The PA features a three-stage cascode architecture that includes both medium-speed (medium breakdown voltage) and high breakdown voltage (low-speed) SiGe transistors, and a 1:2 input splitter and a 4:1 output combiner which are designed for a low insertion loss and compact dimensions on-chip. The proposed PA achieves a measured small signal gain of 26.6-29.6dB from 7.7 to 12GHz with a 5.0V DC supply. A 28dBm maximum output power with an 18.5% power-added efficiency at 10GHz have also been achieved. Springer Science+Business Media New York, 2014 Power amplifier nationallicence Cascode nationallicence Heterojunction bipolar transistor nationallicence X-band nationallicence Transformer coupled nationallicence SiGe BiCMOS nationallicence Li Jiankang Ministerial Key Laboratory of JGMT, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 210094, Nanjing, China aut Xiong Yong-Zhong Semiconductor Device Research Laboratory, Terahertz Research Center CCAEP, 611731, Chengdu, China aut Li Yihu School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore, Singapore aut Wu Wen Ministerial Key Laboratory of JGMT, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 210094, Nanjing, China aut Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 34/1(2015-01-01), 1-20 0278-081X 34:1<1 2015 34 34 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-014-9849-7 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-014-9849-7 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Li Jiankang Ministerial Key Laboratory of JGMT, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 210094, Nanjing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Xiong Yong-Zhong Semiconductor Device Research Laboratory, Terahertz Research Center CCAEP, 611731, Chengdu, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Li Yihu School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore, Singapore aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Wu Wen Ministerial Key Laboratory of JGMT, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 210094, Nanjing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 34/1(2015-01-01), 1-20 0278-081X 34:1<1 2015 34 34