A 39 GHz 2x16-Channel Phased-Array Transceiver IC With Compact, High-Efficiency Doherty Power Amplifiers

This paper presents a 39 GHz 2x16-channel phased-array transceiver IC with compact, high-efficiency Doherty power amplifiers. The IC was implemented using a 28-nm bulk CMOS process with flip-chip packaging and evaluated using 100 MHz 8-carrier component (CC) fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) signal (total 800 MHz). With single transformer-based compact Doherty power amplifiers in transmitter (TX) path, the phased-array IC shows excellent TX performance, achieving high average output power of >8 / >9.3 dBm/ch. at error-vector-magnitude (EVM) of -32 / -28 dB while consuming low DC power of <109 / <118 mW/ch. Furthermore, the receiver (RX) path demonstrates low system noise figure (NF) of 5.8 - 6.5 dB, and an EVM of -29.8 dB with low DC power consumption of <42.3 mW/ch.