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

作　　者：冯晓星 张兴 葛彬杰 王新安 

机构地区：[1]Key Laboratory of Integrated Microsystems,Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University

出　　处：《Journal of Semiconductors》2009年第6期83-87,共5页半导体学报（英文版）

摘　　要：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 μm^2 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.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 μm^2 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.

关 键 词：power amplifiers radio frequency amplifiers UHF amplifiers RFID digital CMOS process 

分 类 号：TN722.75[电子电信—电路与系统] TN929.11