A Fully Integrated UHF CMOS Power Amplifier for Spacecraft Applications

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 55; no. 10; pp. 2006 - 2014
• Main Authors: Jeongmin Jeon, Kuhn, W.B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-10-2007; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Amplifiers; Antennas; Applied sciences; Circuit properties; CMOS; Degradation; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electric potential; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Failure; Frequency; Integrated circuits; Mars; Packaging; Performance degradation; Power amplifiers; power amplifiers (PAs); Propagation losses; Radiocommunications; Receiving antennas; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Space vehicles; Switches; Switching, multiplexing, switched capacity circuits; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; transceiver; transformer; Transformers; transmit/receive (TR) switch; Transmitting antennas; UHF; Performance evaluation; Electric transformer; Output power; UHF power amplifiers; transceiver; transformer; Degradation; Low voltage; CMOS; Continuous wave; UHF wave; Disruptive voltage; Complementary MOS technology; Electronic packaging; power amplifiers (PAs); Selector switch; Antenna; Damaging; High Q factor; Spacecraft; PMOS technology; Transistor; Power electronics; Cascode connection; transmit/receive (TR) switch; Failures; Power amplifier
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2007.905481

A power amplifier (PA) is designed for a surface-to-orbit proximity link microtransceiver on Mars exploration rovers, aerobots, and small networked landers and works in conjunction with a 0.2-dB loss transmit/receive switch to allow nearly the full 1 W to reach the antenna. The fully integrated UHF CMOS PA with more than 30-dBm output is reported for the first time. A differential pMOS structure with floating-bias cascode transistors and 1:3-turn ratio output transformer are chosen to overcome low breakdown voltage ( V bk ) of CMOS and chip area consumption issues at UHF frequencies. The high-Q on-chip transformer on a sapphire substrate enables the differential PA to drive a single-ended antenna effectively at 400 MHz. The PA in a standard package delivers 30-dBm output with 27% power-added efficiency. No performance degradation was observed in continuous-wave operation and the design has been tested to 136% of its nominal 3.3-V supply without failure.