Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:42:24.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Transmission lines characteristic impedance versus Q-factor in CMOS technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2021

Johannes J.P. Venter*
Affiliation:
Department for Electrical, Electronic, and Computer Engineering, Carl and Emily Fuchs Institute for Microelectronics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Anne-Laure Franc
Affiliation:
LAPLACE, University of Toulouse, CNRS, INPT, UPS, Toulouse, France
Tinus Stander
Affiliation:
Department for Electrical, Electronic, and Computer Engineering, Carl and Emily Fuchs Institute for Microelectronics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Philippe Ferrari
Affiliation:
RFIC-Lab, University of Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
*
Author for correspondence: Johannes J.P. Venter, E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic comparison of the relationship between transmission line characteristic impedance and Q-factor of CPW, slow-wave CPW, microstrip, and slow-wave microstrip in the same CMOS back-end-of-line process. It is found that the characteristic impedance for optimal Q-factor depends on the ground-to-ground spacing of the slow-wave transmission line. Although the media are shown to be similar from a mode of propagation point of view, the 60-GHz optimal Q-factor for slow-wave transmission lines is achieved when the characteristic impedance is ≈23 Ω for slow-wave CPWs and ≈43 Ω for slow-wave microstrip lines, with Q-factor increasing for wider ground plane gaps. Moreover, it is shown that slow-wave CPW is found to have a 12% higher optimal Q-factor than slow-wave microstrip for a similar chip area. The data presented here may be used in selecting Z0 values for S-MS and S-CPW passives in CMOS that maximize transmission line Q-factors.

Type
Passive Components and Circuits
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with the European Microwave Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cheung, TSD and Long, JR (2006) Shielded passive devices for silicon-based monolithic microwave and millimeter-wave integrated circuits. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 5, 11831200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franc, A-L, Pistono, E, Meunier, G, Gloria, D and Ferrari, P (2013) A lossy circuit model based on physical interpretation for integrated shielded slow-wave CMOS coplanar waveguide structures. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 2, 754763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bautista, A, Franc, A-L and Ferrari, P (2015) Accurate parametric electrical model for slow-wave CPW and application to circuits design. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 12, 42254235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaddour, D, Issa, H, Franc, A-L, Corrao, N, Pistono, E, Podevin, F, Fournier, J, Duchamp, J and Ferrari, P (2009) High-Q slow-wave coplanar transmission lines on 0.35 um CMOS process. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters 19, 542544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amin, NM, Wang, Z and Li, Z (2015) A High Performance Slow-Wave Elevated Microstrip Line with Slot-Type Floating Shields, 2015 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conf. (APMC), Nanjing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, JJ and Park, CS (2010) A slow-wave microstrip line With a high-Q and a high dielectric constant for millimeter-wave CMOS application. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters 20, 381383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, K and Nguyen, C (2015) An ultra-wideband Low-loss millimeter-wave slow-wave Wilkinson power divider on 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS process. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters 25, 331333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margalef-Rovira, M, Lugo-Alvarez, J, Bautista, A, Vincent, L, Lepilliet, S, Saadi, AA, Podevin, F, Barragan, MJ, Pistono, E, Bourdel, S, Gaquiere, C and Ferrari, P (2020) Design of mm-wave slow-wave-coupled coplanar waveguides. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 68, 50145028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parveg, D, Varonen, M, Karaca, D, Vahdati, A, Kantanen, M and Halonen, K (2018) Design of a D-band CMOS amplifier utilizing coupled slow-wave coplanar waveguides. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 66, 13591373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parveg, D, Varonen, M, Karaca, D and Halonen, K (2019) Wideband mm-wave CMOS slow wave coupler. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters 29, 210212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hwang, J, Chu, SH, Jeong, GS, Youn, Y, Kim, W, Kim, T and Jeong, DK (2020) A programmable On-chip reference oscillator With slow-wave coplanar waveguide in 14-nm FinFET CMOS, IEEE trans. Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs 67, 18341838.Google Scholar
Lourandakis, E, Nikellis, K, Tsiampas, M, Yamaura, S and Watanabe, Y (2018) Parametric analysis and design guidelines for mm-wave transmission lines in nm CMOS. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 10, 43834389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galatro, L, Pawlak, A, Schroter, M and Spirito, M (2017) Capacitively loaded inverted CPWs for distributed TRL-based De-embedding at (Sub) mm-waves. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 65, 49144924.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharma, E, Saadi, AA, Margalef-Rovira, M, Pistono, E, Barragan, MJ, Lisboa de Souza, AA, Ferrari, P and Bourdel, S (2020) Design of a 77 GHz LC-VCO with a slow-wave coplanar stripline-based inductor. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers 64, 378388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horestani, AK, Al-Sarawi, S and Abbott, D (2010) Designing of High-Q Slow-Wave Coplanar Strips for CMOS MMICs, 35th Int. Conf. on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, Rome.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franc, A-L, Pistono, E, Gloria, D and Ferrari, P (2012) High-Performance shielded coplanar waveguides for the design of CMOS 60-GHz bandpass filters. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 59, 12191226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vecchi, F, Repossi, M, Eyssa, W, Arcioni, P and Svelto, F (2009) Design of Low-loss transmission lines in scaled CMOS by accurate electromagnetic simulations. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 9, 26052615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ANSYS: ANSYS HFSS, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.ansys.com/products/electronics/ansys-hfss. [Accessed 2020].Google Scholar
Franc, A-L, Pistono, E and Ferrari, P (2015) Dispersive Model for the Phase Velocity of Slow-Wave CMOS coplanar Waveguides, 2015 European Microwave Conf. (EuMC), Paris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mangan, A, Voinigescu, S, Yang, M and Tazlauanu, M (2006) De-embedding transmission line measurements for accurate modeling of IC designs. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 53, 235241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, X-L, Franc, A-L, Pistono, E, Siligaris, A, Vincent, P, Ferrari, P and Fournier, J-M (2012) Performance improvement versus CPW and loss distribution analysis of slow-wave CPW in 65 nm HR-SOI CMOS technology. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 5, 12791285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamecki, A, Balewski, L, Mrozowski, M (2016) Effect of Mesh Deformation on the Accuracy of 3D FEM Electromagnetic Analysis, 2016 IEEE MTT-S Int. Conf. on Numerical Electromagnetic and Multiphysics Modeling and Optimization (NEMO), Beijing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar