A High-Power 24–40-GHz Transmit–Receive Front End for Phased Arrays in 45-nm CMOS SOI

This article presents a dual-band millimeter-wave front end in 45-nm CMOS silicon-on-insulator (SOI) for 5G applications. The front end is composed of a low-noise amplifier (LNA), power amplifier (PA), and a single-pole double throw (SPDT) switch. A double-tuned PA is used and is based on a two-stage stacked amplifier with a reconfigurable load using SOI switches, so as to achieve an optimal load for both 28 and 39-GHz 5G NR bands. A wideband series-shunt switch is also developed with high power handling (P1dB > 22 dBm) and <; 1-dB insertion loss at 20-40 GHz. In the receive mode, the front end has a measured peak gain of 19.3 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of 19.7-40 GHz, a noise figure (NF) <; 4 dB at 18-40 GHz, and an IP1dB of 19 to 16 dBm. In the transmit mode and for low-band operation, the peak gain is 17.6 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of 22.7-30.8 GHz. The Psat is >18.8 dBm and the peak PAE is 18% at 24-30 GHz and includes the switch loss and compression. For high-band operation, the gain at 36-40 GHz is 13.6 ± 1.5 dB with Psat > 18 dBm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first front end that covers both the 24-28 and 37-40-GHz 5G bands with high output power and low-NF. Application areas are in multistandard base stations and small cells.