A high-efficiency single-stage power amplifier for WLAN 802.11ac in 22nm FDSOI

A high efficient and high gain single-stage power amplifier for WLAN 802.11ac is presented. The design uses a pseudo-differential common source amplifier with high gm/I core devices and with two cascode stages before connecting to an on-chip transformer which performs impedance transformation and also converts the differential signal into single-ended before driving the 50Q load. The gate of the last cascode device is biased by the output signal feedback through an RC filter. The design has been fabricated using 22nm FDSOI process and operates from a power supply of 2.7V. It achieves PAE of 31% and a maximum gain of 22dB. The 1dB output compression point is 25dBm and gain variation is less than 1.4dB over the frequency range of 5170-5835MHz.