Performance comparison of 5GHz VCOs integrated by CMOS compatible high Q MEMS inductors

Author

Eun-Chul Park ; Sang-Hyun Baek ; Taek-Sang Song ; Jun-Bo Yoon ; Euisik Yoon

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Daejeon, South Korea

Volume

2

fYear

2003

Firstpage

721

Abstract

In this paper, we report the performance comparison of 5 GHz CMOS VCOs fabricated by 0.18 /spl mu/m six-metal mixed-mode RF CMOS processes with respect to the same VCOs integrated with high Q MEMS inductors. The CMOS inductors implemented by a top-level 2 /spl mu/m-thick Al/Cu metal layer typically show Q factors of about 10, while the MEMS inductors can give much higher Q factors over 25. Differential CMOS VCO circuits have been optimally designed for the respective Q factors of both CMOS and MEMS inductors. Phase noise has been measured and compared for the fabricated VCOs, demonstrating that the VCOs with MEMS inductors can give better phase noise by more than 7 dB in the offset frequency range from 30 kHz to 3 MHz.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; MMIC oscillators; inductors; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit measurement; integrated circuit metallisation; integrated circuit noise; micromachining; micromechanical devices; phase noise; voltage-controlled oscillators; 0.18 micron; 2 micron; 5 GHz; Al-Cu; Al/Cu metal layers; CMOS compatible high Q MEMS inductors; differential CMOS VCO; microwave VCO performance comparison; mixed-mode RF CMOS processes; offset frequency range phase noise; surface micromachining processes; suspended MEMS inductors; voltage controlled oscillators; CMOS process; Circuits; Frequency measurement; Inductors; Micromechanical devices; Noise measurement; Phase noise; Q factor; Radio frequency; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2003 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Philadelphia, PA, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7695-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2003.1212473

Filename

1212473