A Compact +10/+5 dBm 800/2600 MHz LTE Driver Amplifier with Ground-Bounce Reduction

A reconfigurable, compact, dual-band radio frequency driver amplifier (DA) is presented. The proposed DA operates in the 800 and 2600 MHz LTE bands using a single inductor for both bands. The single-ended DA demonstrates a ground bounce reduction technique using a series-LC resonant network at the source of the amplifying device, which also improves overall gain. It is fabricated on a TSMC 65-nm CMOS process and measurement results show that it is capable of delivering up to 16.5/14.5 dBm saturated power at a drain efficiency of 35.7%/32.2%. When driven with a 10 MHz 16-QAM LTE signal, it delivers a modulated power of +10/+5 dBm at a drain efficiency of 14.5%/7.5%, and exhibits an ACPR of-40 dBc. The DA consumes a power of 69/42.2 mW from a 2.5-V supply, and occupies an overall area of 0.48 mm2.