Multi-scale investigation of global coupling between blocks and sub-blocks including lumped components in RF integrated circuits

In this paper, an original multi-scale approach is presented for the investigation of RF integrated circuits including sub-blocks, blocks and lumped elements of dissimilar scales, from a full-wave analysis based on a Transverse Waves Formulation (TWF). A surface impedance operator is introduced to account for lumped component extrinsic electric characteristics in global electromagnetic simulations to circumvent the restrictive condition of adapting the cell meshing size to the smallest geometric detail of a layout. The impact of replacing a block function composed of different sub-blocks and connections by a pad in electromagnetic simulations, for complexity reductions, on the coupling is investigated through a realistic test structure. The obtained simulation results are successfully compared to commercial design tools. The influence of ground path between sub-blocks on isolation performances discussed. The dependence of guard-ring techniques efficiency on their grounding is analyzed.