Systematic analysis of inductors on silicon using EM simulations

This paper presents a systematic analysis of inductors on silicon by using EM simulation on a FEM (finite element method) based simulator. First, the EM simulation capability is established by achieving a good agreement with measured data in terms of S-parameters, quality factor, and effective inductance. Then, both the geometrical parameters such as inner diameter and number of turns and process parameters such as metal thickness and metal conductivity are varied to determine the impact on inductor performance. Also, different shapes of inductors, octagonal and square, are simulated to compare the performance. The use of ground ring is investigated to see the effect. The analysis provides a comprehensive guideline for designing and optimizing on-chip inductors on silicon.