Hot-Carrier Stress Effect on a CMOS 65-nm 60-GHz One-Stage Power Amplifier

The effects of RF hot-carrier stress on the characteristics of 60-GHz power amplifiers (PAs) on a CMOS 65-nm process are investigated, for the first time, in this letter. A reliability study is made on a one-stage PA to validate an aging model and the degradation explanation. A drop of 16% of the gain, 17% of the 1-dB output compression point (<i>OCP</i><sub>1 dB</sub>), and 17% of the <i>P</i><sub>sat</sub> are measured at 60 GHz after 50 h of stress under <i>V</i><sub>dd</sub> = 1.65 V with <i>P</i><sub>in</sub> = 0 dBm and <i>V</i><sub>dd</sub> = 1.9 V with <i>P</i><sub>in</sub> = -10 dBm at 60-GHz frequency.

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