1. Characterization of symmetrical spiral inductor in 0.35 μm CMOS technology for RF application
- Author
-
Huailin Liao Huailin Liao, Yong-Zhong Xiong, T. Hui Teo, Jeffrey S. Fu, and Yeung-Bun Choi
- Subjects
Materials science ,Offset (computer science) ,business.industry ,Electrical engineering ,dBc ,Condensed Matter Physics ,Inductor ,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials ,Voltage-controlled oscillator ,CMOS ,Phase noise ,Materials Chemistry ,Optoelectronics ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,business ,Cmos process ,Spiral inductor - 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.
- Published
- 2004