Process-Tolerant High Linearity MMIC Power Amplifiers

Abstract

The success of an MMIC design is strongly influenced by the process tolerances and model inaccuracies. In fact the MMIC technology is tuneless and all the problems related to the component tolerances must be taken into account in the design phase. This issue is even more relevant in high linearity power amplifiers. In this kind of devices many different parameters (P1dB, PAE, C/I) shall be simultaneously optimized, and, if not properly taken into account, process tolerances may affect the device performances, compromising the fulfillment of the desired requirements. In this paper the most relevant uncertainty sources and the factors influencing the process tolerances will be analyzed, giving the guidelines to keep under control the effect of process variation parameters and model inaccuracies.