312 research outputs found
MIDAS: Automated Approach to Design Microwave Integrated Inductors and Transformers on Silicon
The design of modern radiofrequency integrated circuits on silicon operating at microwave and millimeter-waves requires the integration of several spiral inductors and transformers that are not commonly available in the process design-kits of the technologies. In this work we present an auxiliary CAD tool for Microwave Inductor (and transformer) Design Automation on Silicon (MIDAS) that exploits commercial simulators and allows the implementation of an automatic design flow, including three-dimensional layout editing and electromagnetic simulations. In detail, MIDAS allows the designer to derive a preliminary sizing of the inductor (transformer) on the bases of the design entries (specifications). It draws the inductor (transformer) layers for the specific process design kit, including vias and underpasses, with or without patterned ground shield, and launches the electromagnetic simulations, achieving effective design automation with respect to the traditional design flow for RFICs. With the present software suite the complete design time is reduced significantly (typically 1 hour on a PC based on Intel® Pentium® Dual 1.80GHz CPU with 2-GB RAM). Afterwards both the device equivalent circuit and the layout are ready to be imported in the Cadence environment
Compact modelling in RF CMOS technology
With the continuous downscaling of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the RF performance of metal-oxide-semiconductor field transistors (MOSFETs) has considerably improved over the past years. Today, the standard CMOS technology has become a popular choice for realizing radio frequency (RF) applications. The focus of the thesis is on device compact modelling methodologies in RF CMOS. Compact models oriented to integrated circuit (ICs) computer automatic design (CAD) are the key component of a process design kit (PDK) and the bridge between design houses and foundries. In this work, a novel substrate model is proposed for accurately characterizing the behaviour of RF-MOSFETs with deep n-wells (DNW). A simple test structure is presented to directly access the substrate parasitics from two-port measurements in DNWs. The most important passive device in RFIC design in CMOS is the spiral inductor. A 1-pi model with a novel substrate network is proposed to characterize the broadband loss mechanisms of spiral inductors. Based on the proposed 1-pi model, a physics-originated fully-scalable 2-pi model and model parameter extraction methodology are also presented for spiral inductors in this work. To test and verify the developed active and passive device models and model parameter extraction methods, a series of RF-MOSFETs and planar on-chip spiral inductors with different geometries manufactured by employing standard RF CMOS processes were considered. Excellent agreement between the measured and the simulated results validate the compact models and modelling technologies developed in this work
Modeling of integrated inductors for RF circuit design
Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em
Engenharia Electrotécnic
Q-enhanced fold-and-bond MEMS inductors
This work presents a novel coil fabrication technology
to enhance quality factor (Q factor) of microfabricated inductors
for implanted medical wireless sensing and data/power transfer
applications. Using parylene as a flexible thin-film device
substrate, a post-microfabrication substrate folding-and-bonding
method is developed to effectively increase the metal thickness of
the surface-micromachined inductors, resulting in their lower
self-resistance so their higher quality factor. One-fold-and-bond
coils are successfully demonstrated as an example to verify the
feasibility of the fabrication technology with measurement results
in good agreements with device simulation. Depending on target
specifications, multiple substrate folding-and-bonding can be
extensively implemented to facilitate further improved electrical
characteristics of the coils from single fabrication batch. Such Q-enhanced
inductors can be broadly utilized with great potentials
in flexible integrated wireless devices/systems for intraocular
prostheses and other biomedical implants
Generalized analytical model for RF planar inductors using a segmentation technique
The planar coil inductor has become a very critical circuit component in RF mixed signal application where it can reside either on the package or in the chip. However, there is no clear methodology to accurately analyze the behavior of the inductor over a broad range of frequencies and for obtaining a particular physical layout for a required value of inductance. At present, it has been done by full wave solvers, approximate quasistatic analysis, and lumped element equivalent circuits, each with its own advantages and limitations. This work presents an analytical model based on a segmentation method in conjunction with a Green\u27s function for a power/ground plane model. This method has been used to obtain analytical closed form solution for planar coil inductors of two popular shapes, the rectangular and circular configurations. The model includes a ground plane and the coil configuration such as spacing and line width, and the material characteristic such as conductivity of the metal layer and the dielectric parameters. It is a frequency dependant solution that includes the resonant modes in the cavity formed by the inductor and the ground plane. This method has been applied successfully to rectangular and circular coil inductors of different dimensions where there is excellent agreement with full wave solvers. Inductors on a package and in a chip have been fabricated and experimental results show excellent agreement to predicted values obtained from this analytical work. Also presented in this work is a comparison of popular EM full wave solvers and two quasistatic methods, the advantages and limitations of each have been discussed. Experimental techniques to measure for RF silicon IC Inductors have been developed
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CMOS low noise amplifier design utilizing monolithic transformers
Full integration of CMOS low noise amplifiers (LNA) presents a challenge for low
cost CMOS receiver systems. A critical problem faced in the design of an RF CMOS LNA
is the inaccurate high-frequency noise model of the MOSFET implemented in circuit
simulators such as SPICE. Silicon-based monolithic inductors are another bottleneck in RF
CMOS design due to their poor quality factor.
In this thesis, a CMOS implementation of a fully-integrated differential LNA is
presented. A small-signal noise circuit model that includes the two most important noise
sources of the MOSFET at radio frequencies, channel thermal noise and induced gate
current noise, is developed for CMOS LNA analysis and simulation. Various CMOS LNA
architectures are investigated. The optimization techniques and design guidelines and
procedures for an LC tuned CMOS LNA are also described.
Analysis and modeling of silicon-based monolithic inductors and transformers are
presented and it is shown that in fully-differential applications, a monolithic transformer
occupies less die area and achieves a higher quality factor compared to two independent
inductors with the same total effective inductance. It is also shown that monolithic
transformers improve the common-mode rejection of the differential circuits
Modeling and characterization of on-chip interconnects, inductors and transformers
Ph.DNUS-SUPELEC JOINT PH.D. PROGRAMM
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