A 23-dBm 60-GHz distributed active transformer in a silicon process technology

In this paper, a distributed active transformer for the operation in the millimeter-wave frequency range is presented. The transformer utilizes stacked coupled wires as opposed to slab inductors to achieve a high coupling factor of kf = 0.8 at 60 GHz. Scalable and compact equivalent-circuit models are used for the transformer design without the need for full-wave electromagnetic simulations. To demonstrate the feasibility of the millimeter-wave transformer, a 200-mW (23 dBm) 60-GHz power amplifier has been implemented in a standard 130-nm SiGe process technology, which, to date, is the highest reported output power in an SiGe process technology at millimeter-wave frequencies. The size of the output transformer is only 160 × 160 μm2 and demonstrates the feasibility of efficient power combining and impedance transformation at millimeter-wave frequencies. The two-stage amplifier has 13 dB of compressed gain and achieves a power-added efficiency of 6.4% while combining the power of eight cascode amplifiers into a differential 100-Ω load. The amplifier supply voltage is 4 V with a quiescent current consumption of 300 mA. © 2007 IEEE.