ABSTRACT
A power amplifier (PA) is the most vital building block in the transmitter chain of the radio frequency (RF) transceiver. The chapter illustrates the PA integrated circuit (IC) design. The PA is used to boost the transmitted output power level and along with the transmitting antenna's gain, the maximum communication distance that can be achieved is determined. PAs are included as a chipset or die which are separate from the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chipset, resulting in a complex IC packaging, increased assembly cost, and increased system form-factor The PA design challenge involves the proper device selection for both the transistor and passive components. The main trade-offs for the transistor choice are the power gain, stability, and breakdown voltage. A few possible process technologies to support integrating the PA design on the silicon substrate are the silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS, standard CMOS, silicon SOI, etc. The PA design often involves a trade-off between the efficiency and linearity.
