A compact dual-band 5dBm RF power amplifier for cellular applications

A reconfigurable dual-band radio frequency power amplifier topology (PA) is proposed in this work. The supply bias inductor is shared between two PAs that are designed to operate in two different frequency bands. The primary advantage is significant reduction in silicon area, without compromising on RF performance and power efficiency. To validate the proposed technique, a PA for the LTE cellular system is designed and simulated in a UMC130nm CMOS process. The PA can be configured to operate in the 900MHz or 1.8GHz frequency bands. In both bands, the PA is capable of delivering modulated output power of 5dBm to a differential 100Ω load while meeting the stringent linearity requirements of the LTE standard. In the 900MHz a d 1.8GHz bands, the worst-case adjacent channel power rejection (ACPR) performances are -48dBc and -44.5dBc respectively.