Hi all,
I agree with loose-electron (i.e. what's important is what's really happening), but on the other hand its often useful to be able to put some numbers in. For instance, using what rfcooltools said, if you're at the 1dB compression point, you should be able to roughly calculate your third harmonic (I think it needs to be a well behaved system).
Vivek,
its a tradeoff (as it always is
![Cheesy Cheesy](https://designers-guide.org/forum/Templates/Forum/default/cheesy.gif)
). Maximizing the signal swing is necessary if you want good effiency. Also, reducing the load impedance (using your method or any other) reduces the power gain of the amplifier. On-chip transformers are used extensively in practice, but whether they are efficient enough depends on the application. Also, the method you described is exactly a load matching technique. Whether you choose LC matching or transformer matching depends on a few things, but transformation ratio is one factor. In theory, LC matching is better for small transformation ratios while transformers are better for large transformation ratios. However, in practice, it is difficult to realize large transformation ratios using on-chip transformers.
Correct me if I've misunderstood your question.
regards,
Aaron