RF CMOS technology for MMIC

Abstract

This paper presents a high performance RF CMOS technology with a complete portfolio of RF and base band components for single-chip systems. Using an optimized 0.13 mum CMOS topology, f(T) of 86 GHz and f(max) of 73 GHz are obtained, in addition to a NFmin of 1.5 dB without ground-shielded signal pad. The high-Q accumulation-mode and diode varactors are optimized to perform a high tuning range of 47% and 25%, respectively. Inductors with a quality factor of 18 at 1.7 nH are obtained using copper interconnect, while capacitors with high unit capacitance and quality factor are fabricated with metal-insulator-metal structures. Finally, a deep n-well isolation is adopted to suppress the interblock coupling noise penetrating through substrate by 40 and 25 dB at 0.1 and 2.4 GHz, respectively. These results clearly demonstrate that CMOS technology can provide a complete solution for single-chip wireless systems. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.