Picosecond photoconductive switches designed for on-wafer characterization of high frequency interconnects

Photoconductive switches fabricated by compatible microwave device processing techniques were used for on-wafer characterization of a long high-frequency interconnect exceeding a 160-GHz measurement bandwidth. The origin of the unwanted resistive tail of coplanar strip lines is investigated. The interconnect coplanar strips are characterized in terms of the attenuation and phase constants up to 160 GHz. It is noted that full characterization of this interconnect structure is important for determining the cycle time of future high-speed computers.<>