Active inductor-based tunable impedance matching network for RF power amplifier application

• The use of a new CASFAI in a tunable matching network of a class-E RFPA is presented.
• The designed CASFAI behaves as an inductor in the frequency range of 0–6.9 GHz.
• It has reached to a maximum quality factor of 4406 and inductance value of 7.56 nH.
• The CASFAI is applied as a variable inductor to the output matching network of RFPA.
• The overall circuit is validated in a 0.18 µm CMOS process and 1.5 V supply voltage.

This paper presents the use of a new structure of active inductor named cascoded flipped-active inductor (CASFAI) in a T-type high-pass tunable output matching network of a class-E RF power amplifier (RFPA) to control the output power and enhance the efficiency. The designed CASFAI behaves as an inductor in the frequency range of 0–6.9 GHz, and has reached to a maximum quality factor of 4406, inductance value of 7.56 nH, 3rd order harmonic distortion better than −30 dB for 0 dBm input power, while consumes only 2 mW power. In order to consider the performance of the proposed active inductor-based tunable output matching network on the output power level and power added efficiency (PAE) of RFPA, the CASFAI is applied as a variable inductor to the output matching network of RFPA. The overall circuit is designed and validated in ADS in a 0.18 µm CMOS process and 1.5 V supply voltage. The results indicate that by increasing the inductance value of the matching network in constant operating frequency, the PAE peak moves from high power to low power levels without any degradation. Therefore, it is possible to maintain the power efficiency at the same maximum level for lower input drive levels.