Ultralow-Loss and Broadband Micromachined Transmission Line Inductors for 30-60 GHz CMOS RFIC Applications

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 54; no. 9; pp. 2512 - 2519
• Main Authors: LIN, Yo-Sheng, CHANG, Jin-Fa, CHEN, Chi-Chen, LIANG, Hsiao-Bin, HUANG, Pen-Li, TAO WANG, HUANG, Guo-Wei, LU, Shey-Shi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.09.2007; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Broadband; CMOS; CMOS integrated circuits; Compatibility; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electric power lines; Electronic equipment and fabrication. Passive components, printed wiring boards, connectics; Electronics; Etching; Exact sciences and technology; Inductively coupled plasma; inductively coupled plasma (ICP); inductor; Inductors; Integrated circuits; Iterative closest point algorithm; Magnetic devices; Microelectronic fabrication (materials and surfaces technology); noise figure; Noise levels; Noise measurement; quality factor; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Silicon; Substrates; transmission line (TL); Transmission lines; ultralow loss; Performance evaluation; Noise figure; State of the art; Power gain; Inductor; Microelectronic fabrication; Transmission line; Wide band; Complementary MOS technology; transmission line (TL); CMOS integrated circuits; Trench technology; Q factor; Dry etching; Broadband; Micromachining; System on a chip; ultralow loss; Radiofrequency; quality factor; Back surface; Inductively coupled plasma; Integrated circuit; Radiofrequency integrated circuits; inductively coupled plasma (ICP)
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2007.902988

In this paper, for the first time, we demonstrate that ultralow-loss and broadband transmission line (TL) inductors can be obtained by using the CMOS-process compatible backside inductively coupled-plasma (ICP) deep-trench technology to selectively remove the silicon underneath the TL inductors. The results show that a 112.8% (from 14.37 to 30.58) and a 201.1% (from 6.33 to 19.06) increase in Q-factor, a 9.7% (from 0.91 to 0.998) and a 28.3% (from 0.778 to 0.998) increase in maximum available power gain G Amax , and a 0.404-dB (from 0.412 to 7.6times10 -3 dB) and a 1.082-dB (from 1.09 to 8.4times10 -3 dB) reduction in minimum noise figure NF min were achieved at 30 and 60 GHz, respectively, for a 162.2 pH TL inductor after the backside ICP dry etching. The state-of-the-art performances of the on-chip TL inductors-on-air suggest that they are very suitable for application to realize ultralow-noise 30-60-GHz CMOS radio-frequency integrated circuit. In addition, the CMOS-process compatible backside ICP etching technique is very promising for system-on-a-chip applications.