Article

Characterization of symmetrical spiral inductor in 0.35 μm CMOS technology for RF application

Integrated Circuit and System Laboratory, Institute of Microelectronics, 11 Science Park Road, Singapore Science Park II, Singapore 117685, Singapore; School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Solid-State Electronics DOI:10.1016/j.sse.2004.04.004 pp.1643-1650

ABSTRACT Characteristics of symmetrical spiral inductor in differential mode is studied and optimized in this work. The characteristics of interest include inductor value, quality factor, peak frequency and self-resonance frequency. Both single-layer and double-layer inductor using top metals are characterized. Inductor excited in differential mode and single-ended mode are characterized for comparison. The optimized symmetrical spiral inductors are fabricated in standard digital 0.35 μm CMOS process. Experimental results show 60–100% improvement of quality factor and peak frequency, meanwhile 10–20% improvement of self-resonance frequency by exciting the symmetrical spiral inductors in differential mode compared with single-ended mode. To further validate the characterized inductor, the differential spiral inductors are adopted in optimizing low power and low phase noise fully integrated 2.4 GHz voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The designed VCO achieved phase noise of more than −105 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset with approximately 4.5 mA at 3.0 V supply.

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Keywords

characterized inductor
 
designed VCO
 
differential mode
 
differential spiral inductors
 
double-layer inductor
 
Experimental results
 
GHz voltage-controlled oscillator
 
inductor value
 
low phase noise
 
optimized symmetrical spiral inductors
 
optimizing low power
 
peak frequency
 
phase noise
 
quality factor
 
self-resonance frequency
 
single-ended mode
 
standard digital 0.35 μm CMOS process
 
symmetrical spiral inductor
 
symmetrical spiral inductors
 
top metals