A 5.8-GHz VCO with CMOS-compatible MEMS inductors

作者：Tseng Sheng Hsiang^*; Hung Ying Jui; Juang Ying Zong; Lu Michael S C

来源：Sensors and Actuators A: Physical , 2007, 139(1-2): 187-193.

DOI：10.1016/j.sna.2006.12.014

• CMOS MEMS
• micromachined inductor
• quality factor
• VCO
• post-process

This paper describes a low power, low phase noise 5.8 GHz voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with on-chip CMOS MEMS inductor. The inductor was fabricated by TSMC 0.18 mu m one-poly six-metal (1P6M) CMOS process and also Chip Implementation Center (CIC) micromachining postprocess. During the post-process, the dry etching was utilized to remove the oxide between the winding metals and the silicon substrate under the inductor. Due to the alleviation of parasitic capacitance and lossy substrate, the quality factor and resonant frequency will be improved and extended. In this work, quality factor up to 15 was obtained for a 1.88 nH micromachined inductor at 8.5 GHz, and the improvement is up to 88% in maximum quality factor. The CMOS and micromachined inductor were both implemented with a 5.8 GHz VCO. Compared side by side with the CMOS inductor, the CMOS MEMS inductor produced a 5 dB lower phase noise improvement at 1MHz offset in this 5.8 GHz VCO.

• 出版日期2007-9-12
• 单位中国科学院电工研究所; 清华大学