WHITE PAPER
RFIC PA Development for Communication and
Radar Systems
Featuring Cadence AWR Software
Power amplifiers (PAs) are responsible for increasing the strength of a signal with minimal
added distortion. By providing enough signal strength to overcome over-the-air losses, PAs
play a vital role in the RF/microwave front-end of any communication system. In mobile
devices, PAs are typically realized as an integrated circuit (IC) or module, incorporating power
transistors, impedance matching networks, biasing, and, potentially, other functions to
manage power levels, linearity, and more.
Most PAs in wireless devices are based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN)
semiconductor technology; however, silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar and silicon (Si)
complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies offer attractive benefits
such as high-volume manufacturing, lower cost, and the potential to integrate an entire PA
module (PA core, control circuits, and passives), and possibly even the RF front-end, including
any digital signal processing.
Contents
Design Overview ........................................................2
PA Basics......................................................................2
Nonlinearities ..............................................................4
System Metrics ...........................................................6
Conclusion .................................................................. 8
