A New Methodology for the On-Wafer Characterization of RF Integrated Transformers

This paper presents a new methodology for measuring integrated transformers. It gives a description of the transformer and its specifications and develops a measurement system. It also presents different transformer geometries and transformer terminal combinations. After the theoretical exposition of the measurement system, a differential-differential integrated transformer and a single-single integrated transformer are measured using this system in order to validate the methodology proposed. In the state-of-the-art, there is no fixed methodology for measuring the coupling factor k of a transformer. This paper presents a new methodology for obtaining this figure-of-merit systematically. As a result of this measurement, this paper presents the values obtained and corroborates the measurement system. Thus, this paper presents and explains a new systematic method for measuring transformers