Title :
RF Harmonic Distortion of CPW Lines on HR-Si and Trap-Rich HR-Si Substrates
Author :
Roda Neve, C. ; Raskin, J.-P.
Author_Institution :
Inf. & Commun. Technol., Electron. & Appl. Math. (ICTEAM), Univ. Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
fDate :
4/1/2012 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
In this paper, the nonlinear behavior of coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines fabricated on Si and high-resistivity (HR) Si substrates is thoroughly investigated. Simulations and experimental characterization of 50- Ω CPW lines are analyzed under small- and large-signal operation at 900 MHz for a wide variety of Si substrates with nominal resistivities from 10 Ω-cm up to values higher than 10 kΩ-cm. The introduction of a trap-rich layer to recover the Si substrate nominal HR characteristics is also considered. We experimentally demonstrate that the distortion level of a CPW line lying on Si substrate decreases with the effective resistivity sensed by the coplanar structure. Si substrates of effective resistivity higher than 3 kΩ-cm present harmonic levels below -80 dBm for an output power of +15 dBm.
Keywords :
coplanar transmission lines; coplanar waveguides; harmonic distortion; silicon; CPW lines; CPW transmission lines; HR characteristics; RF harmonic distortion; coplanar structure; coplanar waveguide transmission lines; distortion level; harmonic levels; large-signal operation; nominal resistivity; nonlinear behavior; trap-rich HR-Si substrates; trap-rich layer; Conductivity; Coplanar waveguides; Harmonic analysis; Harmonic distortion; Radio frequency; Silicon; Substrates; Harmonic distortion; high-resistivity (HR) Si substrate; large signal analysis; nonlinear characterization; polycrystalline silicon (PSi); system on chip (SoC); trap-rich layer;
Journal_Title :
Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TED.2012.2183598
