This article describes a novel Low Power Current Source Tunable Inductor (LPCSTI) for CMOS Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC). The LPCSTI comprises a deep triode common source transistor, a stabilizer resistor and a coupling capacitor which is capable to increase the physical inductance value up to 80% from its default value thus achieving higher inductance per area. Integration of the tuner to a physical inductor of 1.2 nH increases the inductance value up to 2.2 nH at 2.5 GHz, contributing to an area reduction of 52%. The LPCSTI is implemented in a single stage CMOS 180 nm power amplifier (PA) and tested. The tunability property of the LPCSTI allows the performance of the LPCSTI-PA to be adjusted and makes it resilient to process variations, thus enhances production yield. The LPCSTI-PA achieved a maximum output power of 15 dBm as well as peak efficiency of 45%. Measurement on 10 sample dice show that the efficiency of the LPCSTI-PA can be maintained to be more than 20% at maximum linear output power.

中文翻译：

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具有 80% RFIC 调谐范围的 CMOS 低功率电流源可调电感器

本文介绍了一种用于 CMOS 射频集成电路 (RFIC) 的新型低功率电流源可调电感器 (LPCSTI)。LPCSTI 包括一个深三极管共源晶体管、一个稳定电阻和一个耦合电容，能够将物理电感值从默认值增加到 80%，从而实现更高的单位面积电感。将调谐器集成到 1.2 nH 的物理电感器可将 2.5 GHz 下的电感值提高至 2.2 nH，从而使面积减少 52%。LPCSTI 在单级 CMOS 180 nm 功率放大器 (PA) 中实现并经过测试。LPCSTI 的可调性允许调整 LPCSTI-PA 的性能并使其适应工艺变化，从而提高产量。LPCSTI-PA 实现了 15 dBm 的最大输出功率以及 45% 的峰值效率。对 10 个样片的测量表明，在最大线性输出功率下，LPCSTI-PA 的效率可以保持在 20% 以上。