32.8 A 27.8-to-38.7GHz Load-Modulated Balanced Power Amplifier with Scalable 7-to-1 Load-Modulated Power-Combine Network Achieving 27.2dBm Output Power and 28.8%/23.2%/16.3%/11.9% Peak/6/9/12dB Back-Off Efficiency.

The increasing global demand for multi-Gb/s data-rates has accelerated the rapid development and standardization of the 5G technology, particularly in the mm-wave bands [1–11]. With 5G, there is a significant anticipation for the widespread utilization of high-speed and spectrally efficient modulation schemes. As a result, the importance of both modulation efficiency and high average output power (P out ) of power amplifiers (PAs) is increasing. This becomes especially crucial in User-Equipment (UE) devices, whose compact form factor imposes constraints on the integration of antenna-array elements. Furthermore, the advancement towards low-cost and multifunctional architectures [1–3] necessitates future mm-wave front-ends to enable multiband and multimode operations across the 28-to-40GHz band to cover the 5G n257 and n260 frequency ranges. As a result, there is a strong demand for silicon-based broadband PA architectures with active load modulation and high P out to meet the specific requirements of 5G.