Combined Electromagnetic and Circuit Approaches for Accurate RF Circuits Modeling

This paper discusses a methodology combining electromagnetic (EM) modelling and circuit analysis for optimisation of RF component performances. A modal-state formalism is considered to link electromagnetic field configurations (modal-states) with equivalent circuit model representations. Such link renders possible topology-driven design and synthesis where coupled analysis of dielectric/conductor losses and energy storage capabilities allows for optimised trade-off of low couplings and high Q-factors. The proposed methodology is applied to two different Silicon-based technologies developed by NXP-Semiconductors and LASS-CNRS through specifically selected RF filtering structures. The ability of the obtained modelling results to capture distributed effects demonstrates satisfactory agreement with full-wave 2.5 D and 3 D EM analysis with acceptable correlations to measurement data. Guidelines and design rules are derived in order to facilitate incorporation of topology influences at earlier design stages of RFICs.