RF INDUCTOR/TRANSFORMER

Enrollment No.: 10305179

Name: PALLAVIE TYAGI
Project Supervisor: PROF. A. B. BHATTACHARYYA

May 2012
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Technology
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING
JAYPEE INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(Deemed to be University)
NOIDA

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the work titled RF INDUCTOR/TRANSFORMER
submitted by Pallavie Tyagi in partial fulfillment for the award of degree of
Master of Technology (Microelectronics and Embedded Technology) of Jaypee
Institute of Information Technology, Noida has been carried out under my supervision. This work has not been submitted partially or wholly to any other University
or Institute for the award of this or any other degree or diploma.

Signature of Supervisor:
Name of supervisor:
Designation:
Date:

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation for my supervisor
Prof. A. B. Bhattacharyya, without whose faith, continued interest, dedication and support, this work would not have been possible. Additionally, he deserves
my accolades for his patience and fairness during tough moments in my work. I
thank him for encouraging me at times when I needed it most. His energy and
enthusiasm for knowledge are boundless.
I would also like to thank Mr. Kirmender Singh for sharing his passion and
love for circuit design and device modeling. He encouraged me to work on a variety
of projects and thereby provided me with a well rounded perspective in engineering.
Above all, I thank him for his friendship, his natural charisma and great sense of
humour.
This project is a part of NPMASS program supported by Government of
India at MEMS Design Center at JIIT.

Signature of Student:
Name of Student:
Date:

iii

ABSTRACT
High performance Inductors and Transformers are playing an increasing role
in modern communication systems. Despite the superior performance offered by
discrete components, parasitic capacitances from bond pads, board traces and packaging leads reduce the high frequency performance and contribute to the urgency
of an integrated solution. Embedded Inductors have the potential for significant
increase in reliability and performance of the IC. Due to the driving force of CMOS
integration and low costs of silicon-based IC fabrication, these Inductors and Transformers lie on a low resistivity silicon substrate, which is a major source of energy
loss and limits the frequency response. Therefore, the quality factor of Inductors
and Transformers fabricated on silicon continues to be low.
In this thesis to improve the performance of the Inductors and Transformers
various approaches have been used. One approach is to fabricate the transformer
on a certain distance from the silicon substrate and then within this distance use
Air, High resistive silicon or Silicon nitride as a cavity. By doing so improvement
in quality factor is observed. Another approach is to increase the thickness of the
silicon dioxide. Fabrication of inductors or transformers on such a thick SiO2 layer
can be a good solution to achieve better performance. However, the thickness of
such SiO2 layer is still limited by the process for further performance improvement.
One another approach is to use glass as a substrate and RF performance of the
glass-based transformer is improved compared to that of silicon-based transformer
highlighting a good prospect for the future 3-dimensional RF device application.
Meander structure is also investigated in this project. Perform the modeling
of meander inductor by decomposing it into individual straight segments and then
compute the self and mutual inductance. The obtained results are compared with
FASTHENRY.

Signature of Student:

Signature of Supervisor:

Name:

Name:

Date:

Date:

iv

Contents
CERTIFICATE

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

iii

ABSTRACT

iv

LIST OF TABLES

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 MOTIVATION:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 THESIS OUTLINE:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1
1
2
3

2 LITERATURE REVIEW OF INDUCTOR AND TRANSFORMER 4

2.1 WHAT IS A INDUCTOR:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 CIRCUIT MODEL OF INDUCTOR:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 WHAT IS A TRANSFORMER:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 TRANSFORMER APPLICATIONS:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5 ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.6 TRANSFORMER TOPOLOGIES:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.6.1 ADVANTAGES OF INTEGRATED PASSIVE COMPONENTS:8
2.7 LOSS MECHANISMS IN TRANSFORMERS ON SILICON SUBSTRATES:9
2.7.1 CONDUCTOR LOSSES:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.7.2 SUBSTRATE LOSSES:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.8 CIRCUIT MODEL OF THE TRANSFORMER:- . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3 QUALITY FACTOR ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR INDUCTOR AND TRANSFORMER
14
3.1 INTRODUCTION:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2 PARASITIC EFFECTS IN THE SUBSTRATES:- . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.2.1

MAGNETICALLY INDUCED PARASITIC EFFECTS IN THE

SUBSTRATE:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2.2 ELECTRICALLY INDUCED PARASITIC EFFECTS IN THE
SUBSTRATE:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.3 QUALITY FACTOR:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.4 SELF RESONANCE FREQUENCY:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.5 PROCESS PARAMETERS AND DIMENSIONS:- . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.6 Q-FACTOR ENHANCEMENT USING CAVITY:- . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.7 Q-FACTOR ENHANCEMENT USING COPPER:- . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.8 Q-FACTOR ENHANCEMENT USING HIGH RESISTIVE SUBSTRATES:22
3.9 LAYOUT OF INDUCTOR:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.10 LAYOUT OF TRANSFORMER:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.11 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4 VERIFICATION OF SELF AND MUTUAL INDUCTANCE THROUGH
FASTHENRY
27
4.1 PARTIAL INDUCTANCE APPROACH:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.2 FASTHENRY:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.3 VERIFICATION OF PARTIAL INDUCTANCE APPROACH ON
MEANDER:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.4 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF MEANDER ON SILICON SUBSTRATE:- 32
4.5 MODELING OF INDUCTANCE:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.6 SELF INDUCTANCE:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.7 MUTUAL INDUCTANCE:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.8 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS:- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5 CONCLUSIONS

44

APPENDIX

44

A FASTHENRY CODING OF SPIRAL INDUCTOR:-

45

B FASTHENRY CODING OF TRANSFORMER:-

47

C DIMENSIONS OF INDUCTOR LAYOUT:-

51

REFERENCES

51

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List of Tables
1.1

Effect of Q on typical RF circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5

Process Parameters . . . .
Aluminium with Cavity .
Copper with Cavity . . . .
Copper without Cavity . .
Aluminium without Cavity

4.1

Parameters of Ground Signal Ground structure . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

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List of Figures
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5

Circuit diagram of Inductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Monolithic Transformer- Physical Layout . . . . . . .
Illustration of magnetic fields in a Transformer . . . .
Induced Eddy currents in a Transformer . . . . . . .
Circuit diagram of Transformer by O.El.Gharniti[16]

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3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.10
3.11
3.12
3.13
3.14

Magnetically induced substrate losses in a Transformer

Electrically Induced losses in a Transformer . . . . . .
Cavity(Air) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cavity(Air) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cavity(oxide) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cavity(Oxide) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cavity(Silicon Nitride) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
No Cavity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Layout of Inductor and Transformer in ADS . . . . . .
High Resistive Si Substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Inductor on Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transformer on Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Layout of Inductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Layout of Transformer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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25

4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9
4.10
4.11
4.12

Layout of Meander structure surrounded with Ground . . . . .

Ground Signal Ground structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ground Signal Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plot of self inductance by varying the dg . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plot of self inductance by Varying the length lw of the conductor
Ground Signal Ground- Symmetric Structure . . . . . . . . . . .
Ground Signal Ground- Asymmetric Structure . . . . . . . . . .
Circuit diagram of meander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Meander structure on Silicon substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Return current through Capacitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Two magnetically coupled loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Circular conductor with radius b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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viii

4.13 GSG: Symmetric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.14 GSG: Asymmetric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.15 Coupling inductance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
A.1 Screen shot of INDUCTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
B.1 Screen shot of TRANSFORMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1

INTRODUCTION:-

Monolithic inductors/transformers have found extensive applications in radiofrequency (RF) circuits in wireless communication systems, such as impedance
matching, signal coupling, phase splitting and formation of large inductances on
the order of tens of nano henries. Implemented in CMOS technology, the current
inductors/transformers generally have low quality factors (Q), low self-resonant frequencies fres and large cross talk.
The low performance of current inductors/transformers is in part due to the parasitics between the devices and the lossy silicon substrate. First, the eddy currents
induced in the silicon substrate beneath a inductor/transformer by the magnetic field
generated in the device cause energy loss and reduce Q, this effect is especially serious at high frequencies, because the intensity of the eddy currents is proportional to
the rate of change in the magnetic field. Second, the parasitic capacitances between
the inductor/transformer traces and the substrate are in shunt with the inductance
obtained from the spiral traces, thus lowering fres of the inductor/transformer, these
parasitic capacitances also enable electric coupling between the device and the substrate, causing further energy loss. Lastly, but not the least important,adjacent
devices are coupled through these parasitics and their ambient (including both the
substrate and air), hence large cross talk.
Because spiral inductors are typically used to form transformers, the very nature
of coupling entails even greater parasitic capacitances and eddy currents among the
spirals, resulting in more energy loss. Therefore, to improve the performance of
the on-chip monolithic transformers, the parasitics due to the substrate should be
suppressed as much as possible. One efficient approach is to drastically increase
the thickness of the isolation layer, typically silicon dioxide or by using air as a
1

cavity, between the inductor/transformer and the silicon substrate. In doing so,
the magnetic and electric coupling between the device and the silicon substrate and
the coupling among devices through the substrate are greatly weakened. Another
approach to reduce these effects is the use of glass substrate instead of silicon substrate. By using glass as a substrate quality factor is increased up to 40 percent.

1.2

MOTIVATION:-

Modern RF communication systems require stringent specifications for RF components. Despite much work , which has been done on the integration of RF systems
into a single chip, many components remain off-chip. This is because the RF passives with the required performance are not available in the standard silicon process.
Many recent studies have shown that two aspects are extremely important in order
to obtain high performance integrated passive components when the signal frequency
is in the GHz range. One is the metal thickness and the other is how far the device is
isolated from the lossy substrate. For these two reasons, research has been performed
to investigate other technological options among available fabrication processes.
Recently, Transformers/Inductors have been required in many RFIC applications
for impedance matching/transforming, signal coupling, phase splitting (balun).Important
specifications for inductors/transformers are their Q and self-resonance frequency.
High-Q inductors are essential for many different passive and active circuits and
can substantially reduce the phase noise or power consumption of oscillators and
amplifiers. Also, they result in low-loss matching networks and filters as shown in
Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Effect of Q on typical RF circuits

Circuit

Parameter

Effect of Q
1
Oscillator
Phase Noise
Q2
Amplifier
Gain
Q
1
Oscillator
Power Consumption
Q
1
Amplifier
Power consumption
Q
1
Matching System
Loss
Q
1
Filter
Loss
Q
1
System
Noise Figure
Q

MEMS based products combine both mechanical and electronic devices on a

monolithic microchip to produce superior performance over solid state components,
especially for Wireless Applications. Micromachined versions of off chip components,
including Vibrating Resonators , Switches, Capacitors, Inductors and Transformers
could maintain or shrink the size of future Wireless phones. Next generation handsets need multiband reconfigurability and even larger number of high Q components.
However, on-chip Transformers acquired from the conventional silicon IC technologies do not meet the required performance of circuit designers. In order to address
this issue, non-standard substrates such as high resistivity silicon or glass substrates,
or sometimes substrates with insulation layers have been used to reduce the substrate loss.

1.3

THESIS OUTLINE:-

This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the

research. This mainly consists of the motivation and importance of RF passive components in modern communication system.
Chapter 2 presents literature review of inductors and transformers. This chapter
discusses various topologies proposed by previous researchers as well as applications
of RF transformers. A physics based compact model of inductor and transformer
along with the loss mechanisms, responsible for the degradation of Q factor when
placed above the silicon substrate is discussed.
In chapter 3 Quality factor enhancement techniques for both the inductors and
transformers is presented. Conventional monolithic inductors can achieve a maximum Q-factor of 10, It poses a limitation for narrow band circuits but by fabricating
the inductor/transformer farther away the silicon substrate using the cavity or by
fabricating the inductor/transformer on high resistive substrate, higher value of
Quality factor and self resonance frequency is obtained.
Chapter 4 presents the modeling of meander inductor surrounded by ground on
both the sides, decomposing the structure into individual straight segments and then
perform the computation of self and mutual inductance.
Finally in chapter 5 conclusions are highlighted and some future work in order
to continue this project are suggested.

Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW OF
INDUCTOR AND
TRANSFORMER
2.1

WHAT IS A INDUCTOR:-

An inductor is a component that stores energy in the form of a magnetic field.

Maxwells equations imply that current moving through a conductor induces a magnetic field. Similarly, changes in a magnetic field near a conductor induce changes in
the current flowing inside that conductor. Key parameters in integrated inductors
are the quality factor Q and the self-resonance frequency where Q would peak as
the device transforms from inductive to capacitive characteristics. Resistive metal
lines and dielectric losses in the substrate are the main contributing factors to the
degradation of the Q factor.

2.2

CIRCUIT MODEL OF INDUCTOR:-

A general model that describes the performance of a planar inductor ( square coil) is
shown in Figure 2.1. Ls is the low-frequency inductance, Rs is the series resistance of
the coil, Cs is the capacitance between the different windings of the inductor and includes the fields in air and in the supporting dielectric layers, Cox is the capacitance
in the oxide layer between the coil and the silicon substrate, Cp is the capacitance
between the coil and the ground through the silicon substrate, and Rp is the eddy
current losses in the substrate[20].

2.3

WHAT IS A TRANSFORMER:-

Figure 2.1: Circuit diagram of Inductor

A Transformer is a passive device that Transforms or converts a given impedance,
voltage or current to another desired value. In addition, it can also provide DC isolation, common mode rejection, and conversion of balanced impedance to unbalanced
or vice versa. Transformers come in a variety of types, our focus is on Transformers used in RF and Microwave signal applications. Essentially, an RF Transformer
consists of two or more windings linked by a mutual magnetic field. When one winding, the primary has an ac voltage applied to it, a varying flux is developed, the
amplitude of the flux is dependent on the applied current and number of turns in
the winding. Mutual flux linked to the secondary winding induces a voltage whose
amplitude depends on the number of turns in the secondary winding.

2.4

TRANSFORMER APPLICATIONS:-

Transformers are used for: Impedance matching to achieve maximum power transfer between two devices.
Voltage/current step-up or step-down.
DC isolation between circuits while affording efficient AC transmission.
Interfacing between balanced and unbalanced circuits, example: push-pull amplifiers, ICs with balanced input such as A to D converters.
Common mode rejection in balanced architectures.

2.5

ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS:-

A monolithic integrated planar Transformer comprises two windings. Each winding consists of an integer number of turns N 1 1,N 2 1 where N1 is the number
5

of primary turns and N2 is the number of Secondary turns. The two windings are
arranged in a single plane with conductors crossing one another .
The Turn Ratio (n) of a Transformer is one of the main electrical parameters
of interest and is defined as
n = N 1/N 2
In the case of an ideal transformer, the Turn Ratio (n) is also equivalent to
n = V1 /V2 = I2 /I1
where V1 is the voltage between the primary ports, V2 is the voltage between the
secondary ports. I1 and I2 is the current-flow into the related ports. Each winding, the Primary and the Secondary, has a self-inductance LP and LS and they are
inductively coupled denoted by the mutual-inductance M. The self inductance of
a given winding is the inductance measured at the Transformer terminals with all
other windings open circuited.
The strength of the magnetic coupling between the Primary and Secondary winding
is indicated by the Coupling Coefficient k (k-factor) as

k = MP / LP LS
A typical range for the k-factor achieved in monolithic transformer designs is 0.6
k 0.95. The phase of the voltage induced at the secondary of the Transformer
depends upon the selection of the reference terminal and basis of this Transformer
connections are of two types:-

Inverting Connection
Noninverting connection
For an ac signal source with the output and ground applied between terminals
P and P , there is minimal phase shift of the signal at the secondary if the load is
connected to terminal S(with S grounded). This is the Noninverting connection. In
the Inverting connection, terminal S is grounded and S is connected to the load so
that the secondary output is antiphase to the signal applied to the primary[13].

2.6

TRANSFORMER TOPOLOGIES:-

There are various types of Transformer topologies: parallel(Shibata) Transformer

Interwound(Frlan) Transformer
OverlayFinlay Transformer
Concentric Spiral transformer
A microstrip line is the simplest on-chip element for monolithic implementation of a transmission line inductor, and the strip is normally wound into a spiral
to reduce chip area of the component. Interwinding microstrip spiral inductors to
magnetically couple independent conductors is a logical extension of this concept,
and results in a monolithic transformer, as shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Monolithic Transformer- Physical Layout

An early example of this type of structure is the compact spiral directional
coupler reported by Shibata[2] in 1981. The parallel conductor (Shibata)[2] configuration is made up of two conductors which are inter-wound and lie in the same
plane. This is done to promote edge coupling between the primary and secondary
windings which increases the coupling coefficient, k. The differences in primary
and secondary winding lengths make the Shibata Transformer layout physically and
electrically asymmetric, and a transformer ratio of 1:1 is not achievable. This nonsymmetric property subsequently produces coupled coils with different inductance
values.
An improvement on the Shibata Transformer topology is the planar inter wound
transformer. This layout was introduced in 1989 by E. Frlan and is referred as the
Frlan Transformer [11]. In Frlan configuration primary and secondary windings
7

are identical and lie in the same plane. This configuration ensures that when both
windings have the same number of turns, they are electrically identical. In addition,
this configuration has the advantage of placing the terminals of the Transformer at
opposite ends which makes it easier to connect the transformer to other components
in the system. The Frlan[11] winding configuration was selected as the most suitable
configuration for the resonant tank of the oscillator.
Multiple conductor layers are used to fabricate an overlay or broadside coupled
Transformer. This implementation was first introduced by Finlay[12]. In this configuration two windings are on different metal layers and are staked one on top of
the other. This has the advantage of high coupling coefficient, k, because magnetic
coupling is achieved both from the edges and the flat surfaces of the metal traces.
Thus, coupling coefficients close to 0.9 are easy to achieve with this configuration. In
addition, a relatively smaller area is required to achieve the same inductance as the
other layouts. The disadvantage of this winding configuration lies in the fact that
the primary and secondary windings are constructed with different metals which
have different sheet resistances. Thus, the Q-factors of the two windings will be
different.
A Transformer can also be implemented using concentrically wound planer spirals. The common periphery between the two windings is limited to just a single
turn. Therefore, mutual coupling between adjacent conductors contributes mainly
to the self-inductance of each winding and not to mutual inductance between the
windings. As a result, the concentric spiral transformer has less mutual inductance
and more self-inductance than the Frlan and Finlay configurations, giving it a lower
k-factor. Also there is no symmetry between windings in this configuration[11][12].

2.6.1

ADVANTAGES OF INTEGRATED PASSIVE COMPONENTS:-

Improved Performance
Very high Q from 40 to 70 at 4 GHZ Inductance
Reduce of capacitive effects for Inductances
Less noise
Low consumption
Integration: Light, small, compatibility

 Packaging: Substantially improved packaging efficiency

2.7

LOSS MECHANISMS IN TRANSFORMERS

ON SILICON SUBSTRATES:-

Losses arise in transformers because of the finite conductivity of the metal windings, the finite resistivity of the silicon substrate, and eddy currents in the windings and substrate. These losses lead to reduction in quality factor, self resonant
frequency. Hence, minimization of losses is important. To reduce these losses,
transformers fabricated on different substrates with different dimensions have been
studied. The following sections explain in detail about the various losses that occur
in transformers.

2.7.1

CONDUCTOR LOSSES:-

Conductor losses in monolithic transformers arise because of the finite conductivity of the metal. At low frequencies, mainly dc resistance losses due to finite
conductivity of the metal contribute to the conductor losses[14]. At high frequencies, eddy currents resulting in conductor skin and proximity effects also contribute
to the conductor losses.

METAL LOSSES:-

The metal losses arise because of the finite resistivity of the windings. This loss
can be modeled as series resistance as illustrated in Figure 2.3. The dc resistance is
directly related to the resistivity of the windings and is given as
L
(2.7.1)
wt
where R is the resistance of the winding of length L, width w, thickness t, and is
the resistivity of the winding.
R=

Figure 2.3: Illustration of magnetic fields in a Transformer

EDDY CURRENT LOSSES:The time-varying currents of the primary and secondary windings give rise to
time-varying magnetic fields. Because of the close proximity of the windings, these
magnetic fields pass through the windings and generate eddy currents as shown in
Figure 2.4. According to Faraday-Lenzs law, these eddy currents in turn produce
magnetic fields which oppose the applied magnetic field [5]. This decreases the effective magnetic field. These opposing magnetic fields are strong at the center of
the conductor at high frequencies and so the current density in the center of the
conductor decreases. This results in non-uniform current distributions in the metal
windings, where most of the current flows at the surface of the conductor at high
frequencies [6]. These effects are commonly called skin effect and proximity effect.
The depth of current penetration in a conductor depends on the frequency and
also on the properties of the conductive material, its conductivity or resistivity
and its permeability . The depth of penetration is defined as the depth at which
the current density is attenuated by 1e [21]. The depth of penetration , is:

1
=
f

(2.7.2)

The proximity effect is another form of eddy currents, in which nearby conductive
segments experiences induced eddy currents due to the magnetic field of a separate
conductor. Proximity effect is considered as a important loss mechanism when the
distance between adjacent conductive segments in a spiral inductor is made very
small.

10

Figure 2.4: Induced Eddy currents in a Transformer

2.7.2

SUBSTRATE LOSSES:-

Substrate losses arise in monolithic transformers because of the finite conductivity

of the silicon substrates. The substrate losses can be divided into two categories,
namely the electric losses, which arise because of the electrically induced conduction
currents, and the magnetically induced eddy current losses called the magnetic losses
[5][7][17].

2.8

CIRCUIT MODEL OF THE TRANSFORMER:-

The transformer turns are modeled by ideal inductances Lp and Ls . The

inductances, Lp and Ls are the sum of all self inductances Li and mutual inductances Mi,k of primary conductors and respectively secondary conductors.

Lp =

Li + 2

XX

Mi,k

(2.8.1)

Ls =

Li + 2

XX

Mi,k

(2.8.2)

The primary and secondary inductances can be extracted by using the tool
FASTHENRY and by the following equations:

Lp =
11

imgZ11

(2.8.3)

Ls =

imgZ22

(2.8.4)

Figure 2.5: Circuit diagram of Transformer by O.El.Gharniti[16]

The ohmic losses in the conductors are represented by the series resistances
Rp and Rs .
CL1, CL2, Cpp , and Css are used to model the parasitic capacitive coupling
between different winding turns. Cpp and Css can be determined using the
following equations:
Cpp = W.lp .Cm1m2

(2.8.5)

Css = W.ls .Cm1m2

(2.8.6)

Cm1m2 is the capacitance per unit area between metal layers 1 and 2, lp and ls
are the lengths of primary and secondary turns, W is width of metal traces.
Csub1 and Csub2 are used to model the parasitic capacitive coupling into the
substrate.
1
Csub1 = Csub2 = W.lp .Csub
(2.8.7)
2
1
(2.8.8)
Csub3 = Csub4 = W.ls .Csub
2
Csub is the substrate capacitance per unit area.
In order to model the parasitic capacitive coupling into the oxide Cox1 to Cox4

12

is used.
Cox1 = Cox2 = W.lp .Cox

(2.8.9)

Cox3 = Cox4 = W.ls .Cox

(2.8.10)

Cox is the oxide capacitance per unit area.

To model the substrate losses Rsub1 and Rsub1 is used. To determine Rsub1 and
Rsub1 the formula presented in[7] is used:
Rsub1 = Rsub2




W + 6Hox + T
1
ln 2Coth
=
sub l
8
Hsub

(2.8.11)

Wp is the width of the primary turns, T is the thickness of metal layer, Hsub
is the thickness of the substrate. Similarly Rsub3 and Rsub4 can be calculated.

13

Chapter 3
QUALITY FACTOR
ENHANCEMENT
TECHNIQUES FOR INDUCTOR
AND TRANSFORMER
3.1

INTRODUCTION:-

In this chapter we have presented two approaches for the quality factor enhancement of Inductor and Transformer: (i) By fabricating the Inductor on a high
resistive glass substrate or high resistive Si substrate and this is equivalent to eliminate the substrate underneath the spiral (ii) By fabricating the Inductor farther
away the silicon substrate and within this distance use air, high resistive silicon and
silicon nitride as a cavity. The simulation results are obtained by using the tool
ASITIC. Inductors are key devices in RF circuits that, when fabricated on traditional semiconductor substrates like silicon, suffer from poor RF performances due
to substrate related RF losses and capacitive parasitics due to inter-spiral tracks/substrate coupling. Inductor and Transformer on a glass substrate results in a high
quality factor(Q) as well as high self resonance frequency(SRF) which show a good
prospect in various RFICs applications.

3.2

PARASITIC EFFECTS IN THE SUBSTRATES:-

When an inductor is integrated on a Silicon based technology, some undesirable

induced effects show up. The reason being that the metallic layers are separated
from the semiconductor substrate by a layer of silicon oxide. These effects can be

14

classified in two types, magnetically induced and electrically induced.

3.2.1

MAGNETICALLY INDUCED PARASITIC EFFECTS

IN THE SUBSTRATE:-

One of the fundamental properties of an inductor is that generates a magnetic

field. This alternating field penetrates into the conductive substrate and induces
a voltage difference, which in turn generates a current as shown in Figure 3.1[18].
This phenomenon diminishes the energy in the coil, decreasing at the same time the
quality of the inductor.

Figure 3.1: Magnetically induced substrate losses in a Transformer

3.2.2

ELECTRICALLY INDUCED PARASITIC EFFECTS

IN THE SUBSTRATE:-

Other parasitic effect that shows up in Silicon integrated inductors is the capacitative coupling between the inductor and the substrate. In addition, ohmic losses are
produced since there are displacement currents induced in the substrate as shown
in Figure 3.2[18].
For substrates with lossless dielectrics, the higher the dielectric constant, the
higher the electric field concentration; therefore higher the current density at the
edges of the transmission line(each segment is treated as a Transmission line) and
higher the attenuation of the signal[1]. On the other hand if the dielectric constant
of the substrate is low, then capacitive parasitics will be reduced because
C=

A
if  is lower then C will be reduced.
d

15

Figure 3.2: Electrically Induced losses in a Transformer

3.3

QUALITY FACTOR:-

Quality (Q) factor and self-resonant frequency (SRF) originate from resonant
circuits. They are relevant to loop inductors as the inductors exhibit finite parasitic
capacitances.
It is defined as the ratio of the energy stored to the total dissipation per cycle for a
sinusoidal excitation:

Q = 2

Energy stored
Energy lost per cycle

(3.3.1)

Energy stored
Average power loss

(3.3.2)

Q = .

Q=

ImagY11
RealY11

(3.3.3)

Ideally, the quality factor should be infinite for a lossless transformer/inductor.

But due to losses in the monolithic transformer/inductor, the quality factor is finite
and low. It also depends on the frequency of operation of the transformer/inductor.

3.4

SELF RESONANCE FREQUENCY:-

When the inductor starts behaving like a capacitor rather than as an inductor.
The value of the frequency where this occurs is called Self Resonance Frequency(Fsr )
of the inductor. Transformer and inductor can not be used beyond this frequency.At
self-resonance, the magnitude of the imaginary impedance is zero (the inductive and
capacitive parts cancel), yielding a Q of zero
16

3.5

PROCESS PARAMETERS AND DIMENSIONS:-

The key parameters for the design of Inductors and Transformers involve the
outer dimensions or inner dimensions, width and spacing of metal tracks, number of
turns, thickness of the metal and the substrate material. The inductance as well as
its quality factor can be fine tuned by the proper selection of the above parameters.
Process related parameters are given in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1: Process Parameters
PROCESS PARAMETERS
VALUE
SUBSTRATE RESISTIVITY(sub )
10
OXIDE RESISTIVITY()
10E10
SUBSTRATE PERMITTIVITY()
11.7
OXIDE PERMITTIVITY()
3.9
METAL (ALUMINIUM) SHEET RESISTANCE(Rsh )
30
METAL (COPPER) SHEET RESISTANCE(Rsh )
30
DIMENSIONS:
OXIDE THICKNESS
1
OXIDE THICKNESS WITHOUT CAVITY
6
SUBSTRATE THICKNESS
230
CAVITY(High Resistive Silicon,Air,Glass)DEPTH
5
METAL THICKNESS(t)
1
INNER HOLE LENGTH(Lin )
40
NUMBER OF TURNS(N)
4
WIDTH OF SPIRAL(w)
variable
SPACING BETWEEN TURNS(s)
variable
VIA LENGTH
0.5

3.6

UNIT
cm
cm
F/m
F/m
m/sq
m/sq
m
m
m
m
m
m
m
m
m

Q-FACTOR ENHANCEMENT USING CAVITY:-

In this technique improvement in Quality Factor is observed by fabricating the

inductor farther away the Silicon substrate and then within this distance(between
the substrate and inductor) use high resistive silicon, air and silicon nitride as a cavity or by increasing the thickness of the silicon dioxide. By using these techniques
capacitive parasitics in the substrate will be reduced.

17

Figure 3.3: Cavity(Air)

Figure 3.4: Cavity(Air)

18

Figure 3.5: Cavity(oxide)

Figure 3.6: Cavity(Oxide)

19

Figure 3.7: Cavity(Silicon Nitride)

Figure 3.8: No Cavity

20

3.7

Q-FACTOR ENHANCEMENT USING COPPER:-

One another approach to improve the Q-factor of inductor and transformer is

the use of Copper metal instead of conventional Aluminium metal. Through these
Tables 3.2-3.5 we have presented a comparative analysis of Inductor, fabricated using Aluminium as a metal and Copper as a metal. When Copper is used as a metal
provide an overall higher Qmax than Aluminium metallization, due to a two fold
lower metal resistivity and a higher aspect ratio of the conductor for a given metal
pitch[3][4].

Table 3.2: Aluminium with Cavity

SR.
NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6

Width/Spacing Quality
Factor(Qmax )
W=S=8
4.540
W=S=12
4.110
W=S=16
3.611
W=S=20
3.356
W=S=25
2.957
W=S=30
2.733

Self
Resonance
Frequency(Fsr )GHZ
16GHZ
14GHZ
13GHZ
12GHZ
10GHZ
10GHZ

Inductance(L)nH
10.040
8.195
8.027
8.778
10.358
86.907

Table 3.3: Copper with Cavity

SR.
NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6

Width/Spacing Quality
Factor(Qmax )
W=S=8
6.185
W=S=12
5.504
W=S=16
5.044
W=S=20
4.580
W=S=25
3.663
W=S=30
2.763

Self
Resonance
Frequency(Fsr )GHZ
16GHZ
14GHZ
13GHZ
12GHZ
10GHZ
10GHZ

Inductance(L)nH
9.618
8.017
7.899
8.688
10.219
91.789

Table 3.4: Copper without Cavity

SR.
NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6

Width/Spacing Quality
Factor(Qmax )
W=S=8
6.519
W=S=12
6.161
W=S=16
6.000
W=S=20
5.782
W=S=25
4.800
W=S=30
3.585

Self
Resonance
Frequency(Fsr )GHZ
11GHZ
10GHZ
9GHZ
8GHZ
7GHZ
6GHZ

21

Inductance(L)nH
12.903
10.079
9.189
9.138
10.157
11.492

Table 3.5: Aluminium without Cavity

SR.
NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6

3.8

Width/Spacing Quality
Factor(Qmax )
W=S=8
4.642
W=S=12
4.414
W=S=16
3.853
W=S=20
3.934
W=S=25
3.610
W=S=30
2.943

Self
Resonance
Frequency(Fsr )GHZ
11GHZ
10GHZ
9GHZ
8GHZ
7GHZ
6GHZ

Inductance(L)nH
13.505
10.471
9.437
9.358
10.122
11.596

Q-FACTOR ENHANCEMENT USING HIGH

RESISTIVE SUBSTRATES:-

Many techniques have been used to improve the Q-factor of inductors by reducing substrate loss, especially capacitive loss. In these techniques use high resistivity
silicon substrates, or glass or quartz to enhance the Q factor of inductor. High substrate resistivities result high Q values, whereas Q degrades quickly when resistivity
decreases between 10 and 0.1 cm, to reach values close to zero. This degradation
is due to the energy dissipation into the substrate which can be explained by analyzing both electric E and magnetic H fields in the substrate. These fields induce
leakage(E) and eddy(H) currents into the substrate which densities depend on the
resistivity. The layout of Inductor and transformer over the substrate is shown in
Figure 3.9.

Figure 3.9: Layout of Inductor and Transformer in ADS

22

Figure 3.10: High Resistive Si Substrate

Figure 3.11: Inductor on Glass

Figure 3.12: Transformer on Glass

23

3.9

LAYOUT OF INDUCTOR:-

A typical spiral inductor surrounded with ground is shown in Figure 3.11. Qualitatively, the spiral inductor consists of a number of series-connected metal segments.
In each segment, time varying conductive current will flow due to a time-varying
voltage impressed on the segment. Spiral inductor generally makes use of one or
more metal layers. In the most conventional design, the spiral is build with several
turns in the one of the metal layers and the end of the inductor connects to the out
of the inductor with other layer.

Figure 3.13: Layout of Inductor

24

3.10

LAYOUT OF TRANSFORMER:-

In this structure, two parallel coils on the same metal layer are symmetrically
interwound side by side[11][16]. Lower metal layer conductors are used to connect
the inner terminals to other circuitry. Layout of Transformer surrounded by ground
is shown in Figure 3.14.

Figure 3.14: Layout of Transformer

3.11

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS:-

These simulation results are obtained by using the tool ASITIC(Analysis and
simulation of Inductors and Transformers in Integrated Circuits). Through ASITIC
25

we can model the electrical and magnetic behavior of passive metal structures residing above a lossy conductive substrate. In all these plots the Q-factor initially
rises with frequency as the reactive component of the impedance increases, peaks,
and then decreases due to the increasing energy dissipation at higher frequencies.
The estimated quality factor for inductor and transformer, when fabricated on High
resistive glass substrates is shown in Figure 3.9 and Figure 3.10. Inductors made on
a glass substrate have shown a Q of 14.75 at 14 GHz with an inductance of 1.974
nH and Transformers made on a glass substrate have shown a Q of 13.89 at 11 GHz
with an inductance of 2.957 nH.
The thickness of the oxide layer is an important parameter which influences the
inductor/transformer performance. The measured effect of changes in the oxide
thickness upon the component factor is illustrated in Figure 3.5 and Figure 3.6. A
thicker oxide layer reduces the parasitic capacitance of the structure, which improves
the inductor self-resonant frequency.
A spiral inductor suspended approximately 5m above the silicon substrate is
found to reduce the effect of substrate proximity on the performance of inductor.
Figure 3.4 and Figure 3.5 presents the effect of air cavity on the quality factor of the
inductor. Similarly the plot of the Q factor and inductance, when Silicon nitride is
used as a cavity is shown in Figure 3.7. The inductors with cavity have higher Q
and self-resonance frequency than one without any cavity as shown in Figure 3.8.

26

Chapter 4
VERIFICATION OF SELF AND
MUTUAL INDUCTANCE
THROUGH FASTHENRY
4.1

PARTIAL INDUCTANCE APPROACH:-

There are several approaches for inductance calculation. Traditionally, the concept of partial inductance is used. Partial inductances are useful when the induced
current return paths are unknown. In the partial inductance approach, the signal
lines, ground and supply lines are treated equivalently, resulting in a large, densely
coupled network representation[9]. When a multi conductor problem is described
by a set of partial inductances, the sum of the partial self and partial mutual inductances along any closed loop path will yield the total loop inductance of the
path. The most accurate way of extracting inductance is to divide the structure
into smaller regions and numerically solve the magnetic field within each region to
find the magnetic flux.

4.2

FASTHENRY:-

FASTHENRY was developed for the solution of Maxwell equations and extraction of inductances and resistances. FASTHENRY is a software for computing
the frequency-dependent self and mutual inductances and resistances of a generic
tridimensional conductive structure, in the magnetoquasistatic approximation[10]
as explained later.
FASTHENRY specifies every conductor as a sequence of rectilinear segments
connected between nodes. Every segment has a finite conductivity and the shape of
a parallelepiped, whose height and width can be assigned. A node is a point in the
27

3D space. The section of a segment can be divided, if required, into an arbitrary

number of parallel filaments, the whole of which constitutes the segment itself; it is
then assumed that every filament carries a uniform current.
In this way is possible to model the high-frequency effects on the segments. In
fact, when the frequency increases, the current is no longer uniformly distributed
along the cross section of a conductor. However, in limited regions of the section,
the current can be reasonably approximated as uniform. Therefore, being able to
specify an arbitrary discretization of the volume of the conductors, the accuracy of
the results is affected accordingly and in general is better as the discretization is refined.The results are provided in form of a Maxwell impedance matrix Z = R + jL,
where R is the resistance and L is the inductance[19].

4.3

VERIFICATION OF PARTIAL INDUCTANCE

APPROACH ON MEANDER:-

Meander structure is composed of horizontal and vertical conductive segments.

We decomposed the meander structure and consider only the vertical conductive
segments surrounded by ground on both the sides and then compute the self and
mutual inductance. Previous work done by people consider the effect of one side
ground only but in our case we are considering the effect of both sides ground.
Initially we are considering that the length of the horizontal conductive segment is
negligibly small compared to that of ground. The total self inductance is equal to
the sum of self inductance of all horizontal and vertical conductive segments. The
simple layout of meander structure is shown in Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1: Layout of Meander structure surrounded with Ground

28

Ground Signal and Ground Signal Ground structure on FASTHENRY:-

Figure 4.2: Ground Signal Ground structure

In this section we analyze the performance of ground signal and ground signal
ground structure. By varying the spacing between the signal and ground variation
in the value of inductance is observed. As we increase the spacing between signal
and ground the inductance is going to increase. The parameters of a Ground signal
Ground structure are shown in Table 4.1. In case of ground signal ground structure(GSG)(Figure 4.2), two cases are there:

Table 4.1: Parameters of Ground Signal Ground structure

Sr.
No.
1
2
3

Parameter

Description

wg
ws
dg

4
5

lw
ds

Width of the ground segment

Width of the signal conductor
Distance from the center of the ground
segment to edge of the signal segment
Length of the signal conductor
Spacing between the two signal conductors

In first case the spacing between signal and ground is same on both the sides
i.e. Symmetric structure.
On the other hand in second case the spacing between signal and ground is
not same on both the sides i.e. Asymmetric structure.

29

Figure 4.3: Ground Signal Structure

Figure 4.4: Plot of self inductance by varying the dg

Figure 4.5: Plot of self inductance by Varying the length lw of the conductor

30

Figure 4.6: Ground Signal Ground- Symmetric Structure

Figure 4.7: Ground Signal Ground- Asymmetric Structure

31

4.4

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF MEANDER ON

SILICON SUBSTRATE:-

Rsm is the series resistance, which models skin effect and ohmic losses.
Rsm =

.l
t

w..(1 e )

(4.4.1)

where parameter t represent conductor thickness and is the skin depth.

Lsm is the series self Inductance, consists of positive mutual inductance and
negative mutual inductance.
Cox represents the capacitance between the meander arm and the substrate.

Figure 4.8: Circuit diagram of meander

Figure 4.9: Meander structure on Silicon substrate

Cox =

ltotal .w.ox
2.tox

(4.4.2)

where tox is the oxide thickness, ltotal is the total inductor length and ox is the
permittivity of the oxide.
32

 Rp and Cp are the coupling resistance and capacitance associated with Si

substrate.
ltotal .w.si
(4.4.3)
Cp =
2.tsi
Rp =

2.si .tsi
ltotal .w

(4.4.4)

where si is the permittivity of the silicon, si and resistance of the conductor
line and silicon substrate.

4.5

MODELING OF INDUCTANCE:-

Amperes law:
~
~ = J~ +  E
B
(4.5.1)
t
where is the magnetic permeability and  is the electric permittivity of the
material. The first term on the right-hand side represents a magnetic field generated from a wire carrying an electric current. The second term corresponds to
the magnetic field generated from the displacement current, which represents the ac
current flowing between two conductors due to their capacitive coupling as shown
in Figure 4.9. In integrated circuits, the second term is usually neglected because
the current flowing in the conductor is much larger than the displacement current.
This assumption is called the magnetoquasistatic[10] approximation.

Figure 4.10: Return current through Capacitors

now by using this assumption the integrals form of Amperes law is:
Z

~ = 0 I
~ dl
B.

(4.5.2)

Faradays law: According to faraday, a steady magnetic field produces no current flow, but a time varying field produces an induced voltage in a closed circuit,
33

which causes a flow of current.

~ =
E

~
B
t

(4.5.3)

The integral form of Faradays law is:

Z

~ =
~ dl
E.

~
~ ds
B.
t

(4.5.4)

With the help of both the two Equations 4.5.2 and 4.5.4, We can characterize the
interaction between electric field and magnetic field and derive the expression for
inductance. Inductance is a property of the physical layout of a conductor and is a
measure of the ability of a conductor configuration to link magnetic flux. The flux
linkage is the total magnetic field enclosed by a closed circuit. The inductance of a
current-carrying loop is defined as the ratio of the total magnetic flux penetrating
the surface of the loop and the current of the loop that produced it:
ij
=
Lij =
I

R
s

~
~ ds
B.
I

(4.5.5)

Figure 4.11: Two magnetically coupled loops

For two current loops in Figure 4.10, the magnetic flux produced by current I1
is linked inside the area S2 which is enclosed by C2 . The flux linkage enclosed in C2
is the following:

Z
12 =

B1 .ds

(4.5.6)

If the C1 consists of multiple turns N1 , the total flux produced is N1 times larger,
12 = N1 12. When two current carrying conductors are in proximity, their magnetic flux lines interact with each other. If the currents flow in same directions,
inductance of each conductor is increased. Currents flowing in the opposite direction decrease each conductors inductance. The change in an isolated conductors
inductance when in proximity to another conductor is known as their mutual inductance. The mutual inductance M12 , between two loops is defined as the following:

34

N1 N2
I1

M12 =

(4.5.7)

The self inductance, L11 , is defined from the magnetic flux produced by I1 enclosed by the contour C1 as the following:

11
I1

L11 =

(4.5.8)

Figure 4.12: Circular conductor with radius b

0 r1 Ii
,
B~in = a
2b2

r1 b

(4.5.9)

0 Ii
B~out = a
,
2r2

r2 b

(4.5.10)

where B~in is the magnetic field density vector inside the conductor and B~out is the
vector outside the conductor. The current in a unit length of this annular ring[Figure
4.11] is linked by the flux that can be obtained by integrating Equation 4.5.5, through
this we are able to derive the formula of the internal inductance per unit length.

d0in

Z
=

0 Ii 2
(b r2 )
4b2

Bin dr =
r

d0in =

0in

2rdr 0
d
b2

(4.5.11)

(4.5.12)

d0in

(4.5.13)

2rdr 0 Ii 2
(b r2 )dr
b2 4b2

(4.5.14)

=
0

0in

Z
=
0

0in

2 0 Ii
=
b2 4b2

Z
0

35

[rb2 r3 ]dr

(4.5.15)


b
0 Ii b2 r2 r4
=

2b4 2
4 0

(4.5.16)

 
0 Ii b4
=
2b4 4

(4.5.17)

L0in =

0in
0
=
Ii
8

(4.5.18)

Total Inductance per unit length of two wire system:

L0in =

4.6

0in
0
=
Ii
4

(4.5.19)

SELF INDUCTANCE:-

The total magnetic flux generated by a current can be partitioned into the portion lying outside the conductor plus the flux that lies inside the conductor. The
storage of energy associated with the internal flux leads to internal inductance and
that associated with the external flux is represented by external inductance[8].
Now compute the self inductance when there is only one signal conductor surrounded by ground on both the sides as shown in Figure 4.12. Considering that the
distance between the signal and ground is equal on both the sides.
Total self inductance(Lself ) = lw (Lint + Lext )
Lint =

0
0
(1 + 0.5) = 1.5
8
8

Due to ground:
Bg = 0.5

0 Ii
2x

Due to signal:
0 Ii
2[rg + dg + rs x]

Bsi =
Lext =

x
Ii

x =

R rg +dg

x
=
Ii

rg

rg

(BG + Bsi )dx

rg +dg


0.50
0
dx
+
2x
2[rg + dg + rs x]
36

Figure 4.13: GSG: Symmetric

0
=
2

rg +dg

rg


0.5
1
+
dx
x
[rg + dg + rs x]


rg +dg
0
ln x0.5
=
2 rg + dg + rs x rg


0 ln (rg + dg )0.5 ln (rg )0.5

=
2
rs
rs + dg


0 ln (rg + dg )0.5 .(rs + dg )
=
2
rs .rg0.5

Effect of Ground G2 :Bsi =

x
=
Ii

0 Ii
2[0.5wg + dg + ws + dg1 x]

dg1 +0.5ws

dg1


0.50
0
+
dx
2x
2[0.5wg + dg + ws + dg1 x]

dg1 +0.5ws

0
ln x0.5
=
2 0.5wg + dg + ws + dg1 x dg1


0 ln (dg1 + 0.5ws )0.5 .(0.5wg + dg + 0.5ws )
=
2
(0.5wg + dg + ws )d0.5
g1

37

Lself 1


0 15
= lw
2 40
ln (rg + dg )0.5 .(rs + dg )
+
rs .rg0.5
ln (dg1 + 0.5ws )0.5 .(0.5wg + dg + 0.5ws )

(0.5wg + dg + ws )d0.5
g1


(4.6.1)

Similarly the effect of ground G1 can be calculated but as the distance is equal on
both the sides, the expression will be identical.
Self InductanceLself 1 = G1 S1 - Effect of ground(G2 )
Total Self Inductance = 2.Lself 1
Compute the self inductance for Asymmetric structure, When the distance between
the signal and the ground is not equal on both the sides as shown in Figure 4.13.

Lint =

0
0
(1 + 0.5) = 1.5
8
8

Self Inductance due to GroundG1 :Lext



0 ln (rg + dg )0.5 .(rs + dg )
==
2
rs .rg0.5

Self inductance due to GroundG2 :Bsi =

x
=
Ii

0 Ii
2[rg + dg1 + rs x]

R
rg

rg +dg1


0.50
0
+
dx
2x
2[rg + dg1 + rs x]



0 ln (rg + dg1 )0.5 .(rs + dg1 )
=
2
rs .rg0.5

Self Inductance due to the effect of Ground G2 on Ground G1 :Bsi =

0 Ii
2[0.5wg + dg1 + ws + dg2 x]

38

Figure 4.14: GSG: Asymmetric

x
=
Ii

dg2 +0.5ws

dg2


0.50
0
+
dx
2x
2[0.5wg + dg1 + ws + dg2 x]


dg2 +0.5ws
0
ln x0.5
=
2 0.5wg + dg1 + ws + dg2 x dg2


0 ln (dg2 + 0.5ws )0.5 .(0.5wg + dg1 + ws )
=
2
(0.5wg + dg1 + 0.5ws )d0.5
g2
Self Inductance due to the effect of Ground G1 on Ground G2 :Bsi =

x
=
Ii

0 Ii
2[0.5wg + dg + ws + dg3 x]

dg3 +0.5ws

dg3


0.50
0
+
dx
2x
2[0.5wg + dg + ws + dg3 x]


dg3 +0.5ws
ln x0.5
0
=
2 0.5wg + dg + ws + dg3 x dg3


0 ln (dg3 + 0.5ws )0.5 .(0.5wg + dg + ws )
=
2
(0.5wg + dg + 0.5ws )d0.5
g3

39

Figure 4.15: Coupling inductance

Lself 1


0 15
= lw
2 40
ln (rg + dg )0.5 .(rs + dg )
+
rs .rg0.5
+

ln (rg + dg1 )0.5 .(rs + dg1 )

rs .rg0.5

ln (dg2 + 0.5ws )0.5 .(0.5wg + dg1 + ws )

(0.5wg + dg1 + 0.5ws )d0.5
g2

0.5
ln (dg3 + 0.5ws ) .(0.5wg + dg + ws )

(0.5wg + dg + 0.5ws )d0.5

g3

4.7

(4.6.2)

MUTUAL INDUCTANCE:-

The coupling inductance Lij is proportional to the overlapping area of Si and Sj .

If there are two signal conductors as shown in Figure 4.14 then:
Due to ground:
Bg =

0 Ii
2x

Due to signal:

40

Bsi =

0 Ii
2[0.5wg + dg + ds + 1.5ws x]

1
x0 =
l
x0 =
x0
=
Ii

R
Slap

Bdsoverlap

0.5wg +dg +ws

0.5wg

(BG + Bsi )dx

0.5wg +dg +ws


0
0
+
dx
2x 2[0.5wg + dg + ds + 1.5ws x]
0.5wg


0.5wg +dg +ws 1
1
0
+
dx
=
2 0.5wg
x [0.5wg + dg + ds + 1.5ws x]


0.5wg +dg +ws
0
ln x
=
2 0.5wg + dg + ds + 1.5ws x 0.5wg


0 ln(0.5wg + dg + ws )
ln(0.5wg )
=

2
(ds + 0.5ws )
(dg + ds + 1.5ws )


0 ln(0.5wg + dg + ws )(dg + ds + 1.5ws )
=
2
(ds + 0.5ws )0.5wg

Total Mutual Inductance (M12 )=l (L0int + L0ext )



l0 1 ln(0.5wg + dg + ws )(dg + ds + 1.5ws )
(M12 ) =
+
2 4
(ds + 0.5ws )0.5wg

If there are three signal conductors then:

Total Mutual Inductance = (M12 ) + (M23 ) + (M13 )
Due to signal:
0 Ii
2[0.5wg + dg + 2ds + 2.5ws x]


0.5wg +dg +ws
0
0
(M13 ) =
+
dx
2x 2[0.5wg + dg + 2ds + 2.5ws x]
0.5wg


0.5wg +dg +ws 1
0
1
=
+
dx
2 0.5wg
x [0.5wg + dg + 2ds + 2.5ws x]
Bsi =

41


0.5wg +dg +ws
0
ln x
=
2 0.5wg + dg + 2ds + 2.5ws x 0.5wg


0 ln(0.5wg + dg + ws )
ln(0.5wg )
=

2
(2ds + 1.5ws )
(dg + 2ds + 2.5ws )


0 ln(0.5wg + dg + ws )(dg + 2ds + 2.5ws )
=
2
(2ds + 1.5ws )0.5wg

Due to signal:
0 Ii
2[0.5wg + dg + 2ds + 2.5ws x]


0.5wg +dg +2ws +ds
0
0
(M23 ) =
+
dx
2x 2[0.5wg + dg + 2ds + 2.5ws x]
0.5wg


0.5wg +dg +2ws +ds 1
0
1
=
+
dx
2 0.5wg
x [0.5wg + dg + 2ds + 2.5ws x]

Bsi =


0.5wg +dg +2ws +ds
ln x
0
=
2 0.5wg + dg + 2ds + 2.5ws x 0.5wg


0 ln(0.5wg + dg + 2ws + ds )
ln(0.5wg )
=

2
(ds + 0.5ws )
(dg + 2ds + 2.5ws )


0 ln(0.5wg + dg + 2ws + ds )(dg + 2ds + 2.5ws )
=
2
(ds + 0.5ws )0.5wg

Total Mutual Inductance M =l (L0int + L0ext )

42


l0 1
M =
2 4
ln(0.5wg + dg + ws )(dg + ds + 1.5ws )
+
(ds + 0.5ws )0.5wg
ln(0.5wg + dg + 2ws + ds )(dg + 2ds + 2.5ws )
+
(ds + 0.5ws )0.5wg

ln(0.5wg + dg + ws )(dg + 2ds + 2.5ws )
+
(2ds + 1.5ws )0.5wg

4.8

(4.7.1)

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS:-

When line spacing decreases, it is observed that the inductance of the meander coil decreases. This is because meander coil has negative mutual inductance as
shown in Figure 4.3. The plot for symmetric structure and asymmetric structure
is shown in Figure 4.6 and Figure 4.7. A comparison is made between derived and
FASTHENRY for self inductance variation with increasing distance of ground plane
dg , as shown in Figure 4.4. Initially the error is very small but as the distance
increases error increases linearly.
The plot for self inductance calculated from FASTHENRY as well as analytically
by varying the length of the conductor and keeping the distance between ground
and signal fixed is shown in Figure 4.5.

43

Chapter 5
CONCLUSIONS

In this work significant efforts have been emphasized, to enhance the Q factor
and self resonance frequency of Inductor and Transformer. Efforts were focused on
dimensional and material optimizations to minimize the associated resistance and
capacitance. Metals such as Cu and Al were investigated. Losses introduced by the
conductive substrate tend to dominate performance at higher frequencies. However,
these losses do not significantly degrade the performance in the low GHz frequency
range. To reduce parasitic effects of the substrate cavity(air,high resistive silicon
and silicon nitride) has been used and reported a high value of Q factor.In spite
of some practical issues, this technology can give a light to the current integrated
inductor technology, since the process is very simple and the inductor performance
can approach its maximum value by eliminating the substrate coupling almost completely.
Derived the Expression of self inductance for ground signal ground structure
surrounded by ground on both the sides. This expression can be applied to Meander,
Spiral inductor or Transformer, for calculating the self inductance of individual
segment and the total self inductance will be equal to sum of all the individual
segments. The derived expression is also verified with a field simulator such as
FASTHENRY.

44

Appendix A
FASTHENRY CODING OF
SPIRAL INDUCTOR:* Spiral Inductor

Figure A.1: Screen shot of INDUCTOR

.units um
.default z=0 sigma=5.8e-7
*Nodes Declaration
n1 x=0 y=0
n2 x=0 y=1
n3 x=-1 y=1
n4 x=-1 y=-1
n5 x=1 y=-1
n6 x=1 y=2
45

n7 x=-2 y=2
n8 x=-2 y=-2
n9 x=2 y=-2
n10 x=2 y=3
n11 x=-3 y=3
n12 x=-3 y=-3
n13 x=3 y=-3
n14 x=3 y=4
n15 x=-4 y=4
n16 x=-4 y=-4
n17 x=4 y=-4
*Segment Declaration
e1 n1 n2 w=0.1 h=0.1
e2 n2 n3 w=0.1 h=0.1
e3 n3 n4 w=0.1 h=0.1
e4 n4 n5 w=0.1 h=0.1
e5 n5 n6 w=0.1 h=0.1
e6 n6 n7 w=0.1 h=0.1
e7 n7 n8 w=0.1 h=0.1
e8 n8 n9 w=0.1 h=0.1
e9 n9 n10 w=0.1 h=0.1
e10 n10 n11 w=0.1 h=0.1
e11 n11 n12 w=0.1 h=0.1
e12 n12 n13 w=0.1 h=0.1
e13 n13 n14 w=0.1 h=0.1
e14 n14 n15 w=0.1 h=0.1
e15 n15 n16 w=0.1 h=0.1
e16 n16 n17 w=0.1 h=0.1
.external n1 n17
*Frequency Range
.freq fmin=1e9 fmax=1e10
*Programme end
.end

46

Appendix B
FASTHENRY CODING OF
TRANSFORMER:* Transformer

Figure B.1: Screen shot of TRANSFORMER

.units um
.default z=0 sigma=5.8e-7
*Nodes Declaration
n1 x=40 y=0
n2 x=40 y=40
47

n3 x=0 y=40
n4 x=0 y=-40
n5 x=80 y=-40
n6 x=80 y=80
n7 x=-40 y=80
n8 x=-40 y=-80
n9 x=120 y=-80
n10 x=120 y=120
n11 x=-80 y=120
n12 x=-80 y=-120
n13 x=160 y=-120
n14 x=160 y=160
n15 x=-120 y=160
n16 x=-120 y=-160
n17 x=200 y=-160
n18
n19
n20
n21
n22
n23
n24
n25
n26
n27
n28
n29
n30
n31
n32
n33
n34

x=20 y=20
x=20 y=-20
x=60 y=-20
x=60 y=60
x=-20 y=60
x=-20 y=-60
x=100 y=-60
x=100 y=100
x=-60 y=100
x=-60 y=-100
x=140 y=-100
x=140 y=140
x=-100 y=140
x=-100 y=-140
x=180 y=-140
x=180 y=180
x=-140 y=180

*Segment Declaration
e1
e2
e3
e4

n1
n2
n3
n4

n2
n3
n4
n5

w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10

h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1

48

e5 n5 n6 w=10 h=1
e6 n6 n7 w=10 h=1
e7 n7 n8 w=10 h=1
e8 n8 n9 w=10 h=1
e9 n9 n10 w=10 h=1
e10 n10 n11 w=10 h=1
e11 n11 n12 w=10 h=1
e12 n12 n13 w=10 h=1
e13 n13 n14 w=10 h=1
e14 n14 n15 w=10 h=1
e15 n15 n16 w=10 h=1
e16 n16 n17 w=10 h=1
e17
e18
e19
e20
e21
e22
e23
e24
e25
e26
e27
e28
e29
e30
e31
e32

n18
n19
n20
n21
n22
n23
n24
n25
n26
n27
n28
n29
n30
n31
n32
n33

n19
n20
n21
n22
n23
n24
n25
n26
n27
n28
n29
n30
n31
n32
n33
n34

w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10
w=10

h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1
h=1

g1 x1=220 y1=180 z1=0

+ x2=220 y2=-170 z2=0
+ x3=205 y3=-170 z3=0
+thick=2
+seg1=20 seg2=20
+nin1 (213,-170,0)
+nout1 (213,180,0)
g2 x1=-150 y1=205 z1=0
+ x2=-150 y2=190 z2=0

49

+ x3=210 y3=190 z3=0

+thick=2
+seg1=20 seg2=20
+nin2 (30,205,0)
+nout2 (30,190,0)
g3 x1=-145 y1=199 z1=0
+ x2=-160 y2=199 z2=0
+ x3=-160 y3=-170 z3=0
+thick=2
+seg1=20 seg2=20
+nin3 (-152.5,199,0)
+nout3 (-152.5,-170,0)
g4 x1=-155 y1=-170 z1=0
+ x2=-155 y2=-185 z2=0
+ x3=213 y3=-185 z3=0
+thick=2
+seg1=20 seg2=20
+nin4 (29,-170,0)
+nout4 (29,-185,0)
.equiv n1 nin1 nin2
.equiv n2 nin2 nin1
.external n1 n17
*Frequency range
.freq fmin=1e9 fmax=1e10
.end

50

Appendix C
DIMENSIONS OF INDUCTOR
LAYOUT:1170m

100m
100m

100m

50m
30m
30m

50m

30m
50m

970m
1170m 50m

30m
30m 30m
30m20m
30m
30m
40m
30m

50m
335m

30m
30m

50m
970m
100m

51

50m

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53