On-Chip Spiral Inductors and Metal-Air-Metal Capacitors in Suspended Technology

Abstract

This paper presents a new suspended technology applied to the design of novel spiral inductors on silicon substrate and metal-air-metal capacitors. The RF characteristics of the fabricated inductors have been measured. We have achieved a high Q factor of 27 with an inductance of 3.7 nH. Equivalent circuit parameters have been extracted using a conventional lumped-element model. We demonstrate that the process can also be applied to metal-air-metal capacitor. This technology is CMOScompatible and the elements can be used to design filters at low gigahertz frequencies.