This article describes the application of an electromagnetic simulator, based on the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, to the numerical modeling of silicon integrated spiral inductors. The proposed approach is fully three-dimensional (3D) and accounts for a rigorous treatment of metal (aluminum film) and substrate (doped silicon) losses. To check the accuracy of the simulator, a test structure was fabricated, adopting a standard 0.35 μm CMOS silicon technology. Measurements have been carried out at the wafer level by means of a vector network analyzer; the comparison between experiments and simulated results shows that the inductor performance is correctly predicted by the proposed methodology. Detrimental effects have also been evaluated and physically interpreted in terms of internal device fields and currents that are made available by the simulator.
Numerical FDTD Modeling of Silicon Integrated Spiral Inductors
ALIMENTI, Federico;STOPPONI, Giovanni;PALAZZARI, VALERIA;PLACIDI, Pisana;ROSELLI, Luca;SCORZONI, Andrea;
2003
Abstract
This article describes the application of an electromagnetic simulator, based on the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, to the numerical modeling of silicon integrated spiral inductors. The proposed approach is fully three-dimensional (3D) and accounts for a rigorous treatment of metal (aluminum film) and substrate (doped silicon) losses. To check the accuracy of the simulator, a test structure was fabricated, adopting a standard 0.35 μm CMOS silicon technology. Measurements have been carried out at the wafer level by means of a vector network analyzer; the comparison between experiments and simulated results shows that the inductor performance is correctly predicted by the proposed methodology. Detrimental effects have also been evaluated and physically interpreted in terms of internal device fields and currents that are made available by the simulator.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
