Effect of the silicon substrate structure on chip spiral inductor

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of the substrate structure on the performance of the spiral inductor is investigated by the 3-D electromagnetic simulator, Ansoft high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). With variations in the substrate structure including substrate conductivity, permittivity and thickness of the dielectric layer, the performance of the inductors has been analyzed in detail. The simulation results and analyses indicate that the performance of the spiral inductor can be mostly improved by lowering the conductivity of the substrate, increasing the thickness of the dielectric layer and using the low K dielectric layer. In the mean time, some guidelines or “design rules” are summarized by the results of this study.

Keywords

silicon, spiral inductor, quality factor, substrate structure