The enhanced Q spiral inductors with MEMS technology for RF applications

Author

Lee, Chia-Ying ; Kao, Yao-Huang ; Luo, Jiunn-Jye ; Chang, Kow-Ming

Author_Institution

Inst. of Commun. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

1326

Lastpage

1329

Abstract

The quality (Q) factor and self-resonant frequency (SRF) of the spiral inductor in CMOS IC technologies are limited by both high substrate capacitance and substrate loss. In this letter, a post-fabrication maskless etching procedure is used to selectively remove the silicon substrate and suspend inductors in air. Using this technique, a lot of inductors suitable for 2.4 GHz ISM band are investigated. The Q factor increased from 3.9 to 6.5 at 2.4 GHz for a small inductor 2.14-nH and 2.55 to 5.88 for a large inductor 9-nH at 1.5 GHz. Also the SRF of the 9-nH inductor is raised from 3.5 GHz to 6.1 GHz

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; Q-factor; UHF integrated circuits; etching; inductors; micromechanical devices; 2.4 GHz; CMOS IC; ISM band; RF MEMS technology; Si; fabrication; maskless etching; quality factor; self-resonant frequency; silicon substrate; spiral inductor; substrate capacitance; substrate loss; CMOS integrated circuits; CMOS technology; Capacitance; Etching; Inductors; Micromechanical devices; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency integrated circuits; Silicon; Spirals;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference, 2000 Asia-Pacific

Conference_Location

Sydney, NSW

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6435-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/APMC.2000.926079

Filename

926079