Class 3 HBM and class M4 MM ESD protected 5.5 GHz LNA in 90 nm RFCMOS using above-IC inductor

Author

Thijs, S. ; Linten, D. ; Natarajan, M.I. ; Jeamsaksiri, W. ; Mercha, A. ; Ramos, J. ; Sun, X. ; Carchon, G. ; Soussan, P. ; Nakaie, T. ; Sawada, M. ; Hasebe, T. ; Wambacq, P. ; Decoutere, S. ; Groeseneken, G.

Author_Institution

IMEC vzw, Leuven, Belgium

fYear

2005

fDate

8-16 Sept. 2005

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

8

Abstract

A 5.5 GHz LNA implemented in 90 nm RF CMOS process is protected against ESD stress using Above-IC inductors implemented as `Plug and Play´, which have very high Q values (40 for 3 nH) compared to BEOL inductors (7 for 3 nH in 5 LM). The RF pin of this LNA withstands an ESD stress above 6 kV HBM and 1 kV MM, the highest ESD robustness value reported ever in a similar circuit. The LNA features a 16 dB power gain, 2.5 dB noise figure while consuming only 2.4 mW, highlighting that high ESD robustness and good RF performance can be achieved simultaneously.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; MMIC amplifiers; electrostatic discharge; field effect MMIC; inductors; low noise amplifiers; radiofrequency integrated circuits; IC inductor; LNA; RF CMOS process; class 3 HBM electrostatic discharge; class M4 MM ESD protection; frequency 5.5 GHz; noise figure 2.5 dB; power 2.4 mW; size 90 nm; CMOS process; Circuits; Electrostatic discharge; Gain; Inductors; Noise robustness; Plugs; Protection; Radio frequency; Stress;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Overstress/Electrostatic Discharge Symposium, 2005. EOS/ESD '05.

Conference_Location

Tucson, AZ

Print_ISBN

978-1-58537-069-6

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-58537-069-6

Type

conf

Filename

5271823