Integration of self-assembled inductors with CMOS LC oscillators

Author

Mukherjee, A.G. ; Vatti, S. ; Kiziroglou, M.E. ; Moseley, R.W. ; Papavassiliou, C. ; Holmes, A.S. ; Yeatman, E.M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Imperial Coll. London, London, UK

fYear

2009

fDate

Sept. 29 2009-Oct. 1 2009

Firstpage

1876

Lastpage

1879

Abstract

The quality factor (Q) of integrated inductors is of great importance to radio frequency applications. Monolithic integration of out-of-plane Au inductors with Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) LC oscillators is reported in this paper. The recently developed self-assembly process involves in-plane fabrication of Au inductors and subsequent rotation of the structure by surface tension forces of a melting Sn hinge. The CMOS compatibility of this process is demonstrated through the integration of an LC oscillator with the self-assembled inductor using post-CMOS processing. At a 1.48 GHz oscillation frequency, a phase noise of -95 dBc/Hz is reported at a 100 kHz frequency offset. Obtained results show this technique to be promising for the integration of high Q inductors with commercial RF systems.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; inductors; oscillators; self-assembly; surface tension; CMOS LC oscillators; CMOS compatibility; commercial RF systems; self-assembled inductors; surface tension forces; Fabrication; Gold; Inductors; Monolithic integrated circuits; Oscillators; Q factor; Radio frequency; Self-assembly; Surface tension; Tin; MEMS; RF oscillators; integrated inductors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference, 2009. EuMC 2009. European

Conference_Location

Rome

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4748-0

Type

conf

Filename

5296267