A lumped scalable model for spiral inductors in silicon bipolar technology has been developed. The effect of three different cross sections on inductor performance was first investigated by comparing experimental measurements. Using both the results of this analysis and three-dimensional electromagnetic simulation guidelines, several circular inductors were integrated on a radial patterned ground shield for model validation purposes. The model employs a novel equation for series resistance with only one fitting parameter extracted from experimental measurements. All other model elements were related to technological and geometrical data by using rigorous analytical equations. The model was validated using one-and two-port measured performance parameters of 45 integrated inductors, and excellent agreement was found for all considered geometries up to frequencies well above self-resonance.

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Absfracf -This paper presents the large-signal characterization and modeling of a 0 . 8 -p 46-GHz-fT silicon bipolar technology for RF power applications up to C-band. A series of devices with optimized layout and vertical structure was fabricated for on-wafer load-puli testing at 1.9 GHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.2 GHz. Under continuous-wave operation, a 56% power-added efticiency and 11-dB large-signal gain were achieved at a 22-dBm output power level by an 80-pn emitter length device (180-pd emitter area) operating at 5.2 GHz with a 2.7-V supply voltage. A modified Gummel-Poon model was extracted from DC and multibias S-parameter measurements and validated by comparisons with load-pull results. Close agreement was found between simulated and measured large-signal performance up to power levels well above the 1-dB compression point.Moreover, close agreement was also achieved between measured and simulated large-signal characteristics up to saturated-output power levels by using a modified Gummel-Poon model. INTRODUCTTONFuture generation wireless communication standards will require ever higher operating frequencies for faster data transmission rate and increasing number of users. At the same time, the low-voltage and high-efficiency requirements will still hold for battery-operated mobile handsets to allow extended operating time and small equipment size. Currently, the power amplifier market is dominated by Ill-V semiconductor technologies because they can provide excellent performance in meeting such requirements. However, the high cost and low thermal conductivity of these materials make them unfit for higher integration levels. For this reason, the prospect of an efficient RF power amplifier in conventional low-cost Sibased technology has been attracting increasing attention over the last few years. Despite recent efforts [l-31, efficiency values higher than 50% have not yet been reported foj pure silicon bipolar power transistors operating up to C-band.In this work, the low-voltage power capabilities of a high-performance low-cost silicon bipolar process were explored by harmonic sourcelload-pull measurements up to 5.2 GHz. Proper device layout and vertical structure design resulted in the excellent power-added efficiency (PAE) of 56% at 5.2 GHz with a supply voltage as low as 2.7 V. 0-7803-7694-3/03/$17.00

This paper presents a high accuracy. scalable physics-based model .for planar .spiral inductors. which takes into account both metal and substrate loss phenomena. The model I I~applied to inductors on an n+-doped radial-patterned ground shield, which M;US properly optimized by means o f 3 D EM simulations. Afrer validating a simulation set-up in a 3 0 EM commercial tool by comparison with on-wafer experimental nieasiwements. a wide .set qf inductors with different geometries were modeled and two-port simulations \cere compared with 3 0 simulations. A very accurate prediction of inductor petfbrmance parameters 11p to the self-resonance frequency was demonstrated. 0-7803-7530-0/02/$17.00 02002 IEEE.