DC‐to‐67 GHz high‐speed BiCMOS BJT characterization with on‐wafer calibration and EM‐based de‐embedding. Issue 6 (June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bae, Juseok; Jordan, Scott; Nguyen, Cam
• Is Part Of: Microwave and optical technology letters. Volume 56:Issue 6(2014:Jun.)
• Page Start: 1285
• Page End: 1292
• Publication Date: 2014-06
• Subjects: Microwaves -- Periodicals; Optics -- Periodicals; 621
• DOI: 10.1002/mop.28350
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0895-2477

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>ABSTRACT</title> <p>Bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) in 0.18‐μm silicon germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technology are characterized from DC–67 GHz using on‐wafer calibration standards along with an electromagnetic (EM)‐based de‐embedding technique. The common issue of narrow spacing between the interconnects in typical on‐wafer calibration standards that causes calibration error and difficulty in load‐standard design, is overcome with the proposed EM‐based de‐embedding. Appropriate spacing between the closely spaced interconnects is determined based on EM simulations. The parts of the interconnects including vias within the spacing, which have significant parasitics affecting the characterization accuracy at high frequencies and over wide frequency ranges that remain noncalibrated after calibration, are extracted using the EM‐based de‐embedding technique. The measured results of BJTs up to 67 GHz show that approximately less than 2‐dB insertion loss and 15‐deg phase differences are observed between the on‐wafer characterizations with and without the EM‐based de‐embedding, demonstrating that the on‐wafer characterization with EM‐based de‐embedding is useful for accurate characterization of devices at millimeter‐wave two frequencies. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:1285–1292, 2014</p> </abstract>