Characterization of silver CPWs for applications in silicon MMICs

Author

Levenets, V.V. ; Amaya, R.E. ; Tarr, N.G. ; Smy, T.J. ; Rogers, J.W.M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron., Carleton Univ., Ottawa, Ont., Canada

Volume

26

Issue

6

fYear

2005

fDate

6/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

357

Lastpage

359

Abstract

High-Q broadband passives are needed for monolithic microwave circuits in silicon. Coplanar waveguides (CPWs) provide an effective way to implement passives in silicon monolithic microwave integrated circuits. Silver "fat" wires in the backend interconnects, used for CPW fabrication, will reduce the bulk resistive loss in metallization to the lowest possible level, which is vital to minimize noise. Electromigration, electrochemical migration, and agglomeration issues are not a problem for silver microwave passives, because of their coarse dimensions and the low current densities encountered in these structures. In this letter, Ag and Cu CPWs were designed, fabricated and tested. Silver CPWs showed a 2-3Ω/cm improvement in resistance over copper devices at 20GHz. A circuit was identified in which the application of silver passives could provide an improvement in noise performance.

Keywords

MMIC; coplanar waveguides; copper; silicon; silver; 20 GHz; Ag; CPW fabrication; Cu; high-frequency measurement; microwave technology; monolithic microwave integrated circuits; semiconductor device fabrication; silicon MMIC; silver coplanar waveguides; silver microwave passives; transmission lines; Coplanar waveguides; Copper; Integrated circuit interconnections; MMICs; Microwave circuits; Microwave integrated circuits; Monolithic integrated circuits; Silicon; Silver; Wires; Conductivity; coplanar waveguides (CPWs); copper; high-frequency measurements; losses; microwave technology; monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs); semiconductor device fabrication; silicon; silver; transmission lines;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2005.848120

Filename

1432898