A 39GHz T/R front-end module achieving 25.6% PAEmax, 20dBm Psat, 5.7dB NF, and −13dBm IIP3 in 22nm FD-SOI for 5G communications

A 39GHz T/R front-end module achieving 25.6% PAEmax, 20dBm Psat, 5.7dB NF, and −13dBm IIP3 in 22nm FD-SOI for 5G communications ■

Zhiwei Zong, Zhiwei Zong, Zhiwei Zong, Johan Nguyen, Johan Nguyen, Johan Nguyen, Yao Liu, Yao Liu, Yao Liu, Yang Zhang, Yang Zhang, Yang Zhang, Xinyan Tang, Xinyan Tang, Xinyan Tang, Giovanni Mangraviti, Giovanni Mangraviti, Giovanni Mangraviti, Piet Wambacq, Piet Wambacq, Piet Wambacq

Abstract ■

This paper presents a 39 GHz front-end module (FEM) in 22 nm FD-SOI technology for 5G communications. The PA output stage uses a 2-stacked FET topology to achieve high output power. A two-way current combiner is used to combine output power from the output stage while maintaining a uniform waveform distribution over each transistor unit cell to enhance the device reliability. The LNA consists of two stages to obtain high power gain with low power consumption. Derivative-superposition (DS) with a common-mode inductor is used to improve the LNA linearity. The measured Psat and PAEmax in TX mode are 20.4 dBm and 25.6\%, respectively. The measured NF and IIP3 in RX mode are 5.7 dB and -13 dBm, respectively. A Pout, avg of 13.5 dBm and a PAEavg of 10.6\% is achieved in 64-QAM 400 MSym/s single-carrier at EVMrms of -25 dB for TX-mode.