Title :
The modeling, characterization, and design of monolithic inductors for silicon RF IC´s
Author :
Long, John R. ; Copeland, Miles A.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Toronto Univ., Ont., Canada
fDate :
3/1/1997 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The results of a comprehensive investigation into the characteristics and optimization of inductors fabricated with the top-level metal of a submicron silicon VLSI process are presented. A computer program which extracts a physics-based model of microstrip components that is suitable for circuit (SPICE) simulation has been used to evaluate the effect of variations in metallization, layout geometry, and substrate parameters upon monolithic inductor performance. Three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulations and experimental measurements of inductors were also used to benchmark the model accuracy. It is shown in this work that low inductor Q is primarily due to the restrictions imposed by the thin interconnect metallization available in most very large scale integration (VLSI) technologies, and that computer optimization of the inductor layout can be used to achieve a 50% improvement in component Q-factor over unoptimized designs
Keywords :
BiCMOS analogue integrated circuits; MMIC; Q-factor; VLSI; circuit analysis computing; circuit layout CAD; circuit optimisation; inductors; integrated circuit layout; integrated circuit metallisation; integrated circuit modelling; lumped parameter networks; microstrip components; BiCMOS technology; GEMCAP; MMIC; SPICE simulation; computer program; design; inductor Q; layout geometry; microstrip components; modeling; monolithic inductors; optimization; physics-based model; rectangular spiral microstrip inductors; submicron silicon VLSI process; substrate parameters; thin interconnect metallization; three-dimensional numerical simulations; top-level metal; Circuits; Computational modeling; Inductors; Metallization; Microstrip components; Physics computing; SPICE; Silicon; Solid modeling; Very large scale integration;
Journal_Title :
Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
