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Normalized Nonlinear Semiempirical MOST Model Used in Monolithic RF Class A-to-C PAs

Authors:
Rafaella Fiorelli at Universidad de Sevilla
Rafaella Fiorelli
Nicolas Barabino at Universidad de la República de Uruguay
Nicolas Barabino
Fernando Silveira at Universidad de la República de Uruguay
Fernando Silveira
Eduardo J. Peralias at Spanish National Research Council
Eduardo J. Peralias
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Abstract and Figures

This paper presents a simple but accurate normalized nonlinear large-signal semiempirical MOS transistor model to be used in monolithic RF Class A-to-C PAs. MOS transistor characteristics, saved in lookup tables, are extracted for different PVT corners, allowing the study of the PA performance spread. Model accuracy is ratified by the excellent matching obtained when comparing data algebraically calculated with electrical simulations of hundreds of PAs, and with the measurement data of a fabricated 2.4 GHz PA.
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Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing (2020) 39:2796–2821
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-019-01296-7
Normalized Nonlinear Semiempirical MOST Model Used
in Monolithic RF Class A-to-C PAs
Rafaella Fiorelli1
·Nicolás Barabino2
·Fernando Silveira2
·
Eduardo Peralías1
Received: 4 June 2019 / Revised: 22 October 2019 / Accepted: 23 October 2019 /
Published online: 7 November 2019
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract
This paper presents a simple but accurate normalized nonlinear large-signal semiem-
pirical MOS transistor model to be used in monolithic RF Class A-to-C PAs. MOS
transistor characteristics, saved in lookup tables, are extracted for different PVT cor-
ners, allowing the study of the PA performance spread. Model accuracy is ratified by
the excellent matching obtained when comparing data algebraically calculated with
electrical simulations of hundreds of PAs, and with the measurement data of a fabri-
cated 2.4 GHz PA.
Keywords Nonlinear model ·Semiempirical ·Class A-to-C RF PA ·Monolithic ·
MOS transistor ·RF ·Low power ·Power amplifier
1 Introduction
Design space exploration has been successfully applied to analog radiofrequency (RF)
blocks with MOS transistors (MOST) operating in small signal. In order to build
design spaces for these circuits, the use of the gm/IDtechnique [20] together with
semiempirical models [11] has proven to be a suitable approach [7,9,19,20]. These
BRafaella Fiorelli
fiorelli@imse-cnm.csic.es
Nicolás Barabino
nicolas.barabino@gmail.com
Fernando Silveira
silveira@fing.edu.uy
Eduardo Peralías
peralias@imse-cnm.csic.es
1Instituto de Microelectrónica de Sevilla (IMSE-CNM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas and Universidad de Sevilla, 41092 Seville, Spain
2Instituto de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad de la República, 11300 Montevideo, Uruguay
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