Application of a new circuit design oriented Q extraction technique to inductors in silicon ICs

Using a circuit design oriented Q extraction technique based on bandwidth (Q/sub bw/), Q factors of a wide range of inductor structures are studied and compared to Q factors extracted using the conventional technique (Q/sub conv/=-Im(y/sub 11/)/Re(y/sub 11/)). This new technique corrects the under-estimation problem of the Q/sub conv/ at moderate to high frequencies. Use of Q/sub conv/ can result erroneous conclusions leading to improper inductor optimization. To make the difference between Q/sub conv/ and Q/sub bw/ lower than 10% for all the examined inductors, the |W~/sub m/|/|W~/sub e/| (average magnetic energy/average electrical energy) ratio computed using the extracted inductor model parameters should be greater than /spl sim/20.