Experimental Investigation of Relationship between Humidity Conditions and Degradation of Key Specifications of 0.1–1.2 GHz PA in 0.18 μm CMOS

Abstract

The specification of power amplifiers (PA) is closely related to humidity variation, and few reports on the humidity properties of PA are available in the literature. Therefore, an experimental study of PA specifications was conducted under different humidity conditions to elucidate the relationship between the degradation of PA specifications and humidity conditions. This paper studies and provides results of the degradation of a PA subjected to different humidity levels. The experimental results show that the S21 and output power decrease with the increase in humidity. The main cause of this degradation is the decrease in oxide capacitance and increase in threshold voltage with increasing humidity, resulting in a reduction of transconductance and an increase in on-resistance. The results of this study can guide designers in designing compensation circuits to achieve some degree of compensation for the degradation of PA specifications.