A broadband dual-mode reconfigurable driver amplifier for wireless communication

Abstract

This letter introduces a fully integrated broadband dual-mode reconfigurable driver amplifier (DA). DA can operate in analog DA mode (ADA-mode) and digital DA mode (DDA-mode) to meet different requirements for linearity and efficiency in various scenarios. A broadband reconfigurable output network enables the DA to operate from 2-4.5GHz providing impedance matching, power combining and harmonic rejection. The DA offers a maximum gain of 12dB with a 5-bit digital-control gain step in 1.6V supply. Measurement results demonstrate that the DA achieves an OP1dB of 8.5dBm with a drain efficiency of 13.1% in ADA-mode. In DDA-mode, the DA achieves a maximum output power of 10dBm with a drain efficiency of 30.8%. The gain error of proposed DA is less than 0.3dB. The DA is fabricated in 40nm CMOS process, and the active area is 0.16mm².