An investigation of on-chip spiral inductors on a 0.6 μm BiCMOS technology for RF applications

Author

Power, J.A. ; Kelly, S.C. ; Griffith, E.C. ; O´Neill, M.

Author_Institution

Analog Devices, Limerick, Ireland

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

18

Lastpage

23

Abstract

Inductors are very important passive elements in many RF circuit applications. Integrated on-chip metal inductors, formed in conventional CMOS or BiCMOS technologies, suffer from performance limitations due to substrate injection through the oxide, metal resistive losses, and substrate losses due to low-resistivity substrates. These problems mean that the highest attainable inductor quality factor (Q) is significantly lower than that which can be attained from off-chip inductors. This paper details an analysis of on-chip metal inductors fabricated on a 0.6 μm BiCMOS technology. Issues relating to test structure layout, measurement techniques, inductor composition, and inductor characterization and modeling are addressed. In addition, an analysis of the impact of inductor shape and metal thickness on inductor performance is examined

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; MMIC; Q-factor; electrical resistivity; inductors; integrated circuit layout; integrated circuit metallisation; integrated circuit modelling; integrated circuit testing; losses; 0.6 micron; BiCMOS technology; RF applications; RF circuit applications; inductor characterization; inductor composition; inductor modeling; inductor performance; inductor quality factor; inductor shape; inductors; integrated on-chip metal inductors; low-resistivity substrates; measurement techniques; metal resistive losses; metal thickness; off-chip inductors; on-chip metal inductors; on-chip spiral inductors; passive elements; performance limitations; substrate injection; substrate losses; test structure layout; BiCMOS integrated circuits; CMOS technology; Inductors; Integrated circuit technology; Measurement techniques; Performance loss; Q factor; Radio frequency; Spirals; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microelectronic Test Structures, 1999. ICMTS 1999. Proceedings of the 1999 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Goteborg

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5270-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICMTS.1999.766209

Filename

766209