Investigation of integrated passive device with through-silicon via

For RF devices, TSV contributes not only inductance but also cross-talk or interference to functional blocks. Careful designs, which take into account the TSV impact in a 3D manner, are required for fast prototyping. In this paper, typical functional circuits (inductors, LPF, BPF) are used to investigate the impact from TSV structures. Samples are made and measured using wafer-probing method. All the samples have passed reliability tests. Good correlation validates the design and simulation approach. In addition, all the IPD with TSV structures show good RF performance. This indicates that the IPD with TSV structures on such substrate can be satisfactorily used for RF applications. Based on circuit complexity, by using TSV the IPD can be 20%-30% smaller than conventional fc-IPD or wire-bondable IPD, which may offset the added cost of TSV process to some extent.