Broadband and high‐K passive balun using 16 sides geometry for silicon‐based RFICs. Issue 4 (1st February 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Hua Bin; Cai, Min; He, Xiaoyong; Wu, Haijun; Li, Zhengpin; Tang, F.
• Is Part Of: Electronics letters. Volume 50:Issue 4(2014)
• Page Start: 288
• Page End: 290
• Publication Date: 2014-02-01
• Subjects: baluns -- CMOS integrated circuits -- copper -- elemental semiconductors -- field effect MMIC -- silicon -- UHF integrated circuits; broadband passive balun -- silicon‐based radio frequency integrated circuits -- RFIC -- high‐K monolithic passive balun -- thick Cu metal -- 16‐side geometry -- CMOS mixed‐signal 1P6M process -- phase imbalance -- amplitude imbalance -- transmission efficiency -- size 0.13 mum -- frequency 0.1 GHz to 20 GHz -- Cu -- Si; Electronics -- Periodicals; 621.381
• DOI: 10.1049/el.2013.4083
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-5194

Abstract

Abstract : A broadband and high‐ K monolithic passive balun for silicon‐based radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) are presented. It utilises the top level thick Cu metal and adopts a 16‐side geometry. The proposed balun is designed and fabricated with a 0.13‐μm CMOS mixed‐signal 1P6M process. The measured results show that the amplitude imbalance is < 0.2 dB and the phase imbalance is within 4° from the frequency range of 0.1–7 GHz. Compared with the typical octagonal balun, the proposed design achieves the same coupling coefficients K and attains an enhancement in the transmission efficiency S 21 within the frequency range of 0.1–20 GHz, and the consumed chip area is reduced by 3%.