Thermal Characterization of Compact Inductors and Capacitors for 3D MMICs

Increasing utility of 3D multilayer passive components in MMIC designs gives more flexibility with reduced cost and chip size. This also requires an in-depth analysis and characterization of these components over temperature and frequency. In this paper we present an experimental study of coplanar waveguide (CPW) based multilayer inductors and capacitors over a wide range frequency (45MHz to 40GHz) and temperature (25 to 200 degC). All the structures are fabricated on GaAs semi-insulating substrate. The experimental results show that the inductance and capacitance value remains fairly constant over this temperature range. Also the resonant frequency of the compact 3D inductor is constant over the entire temperature range. On the other hand Q factor of the inductor and capacitor decreases with increase in temperature