A linearization technique for bipolar amplifiers based on derivative superposition

A linearization technique for bipolar amplifiers based on Derivative Superposition is presented. The proposed technique provides excellent linearity, while having low sensitivity on the bias conditions. A demonstrator circuit, along with a reference circuit using out-of-band linearization for linearity comparison, have been designed and implemented in a 0:25μm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Measured results show a significant IM3 improvement up to compression compared to the reference circuit.