Design and analysis of a highly-integrated CMOS power amplifier for RFID readers

To implement a fully-integrated on-chip CMOS power amplifier（PA） for RFID readers,the resonant frequency of each matching network is derived in detail.The highlight of the design is the adoption of a bonding wire as the output-stage inductor.Compared with the on-chip inductors in a CMOS process,the merit of the bondwire inductor is its high quality factor,leading to a higher output power and efficiency.The disadvantage of the bondwire inductor is that it is hard to control.A highly integrated class-E PA is implemented with 0.18-μm CMOS process.It can provide a maximum output power of 20 dBm and a 1 dB output power of 14.5 dBm.The maximum power-added efficiency（PAE） is 32.1%.Also,the spectral performance of the PA is analyzed for the specified RFID protocol.