On the design and implementation of transmission lines in commercial SiGe HBT BiCMOS processes

This paper examines the feasibility of implementing transmission lines in a commercially-available SiGe HBT BiCMOS technology. Thin film microstrip transmission lines, using the top and bottom metalization layers (with a 3.24 /spl mu/m separation), from a 4 layer metal process SiGe HBT technology were designed, fabricated, and measured up to 110 GHz. These measured results were compared to full wave EM simulation results to gain additional design insight. Additional EM simulations were used to explore the effects of design rule changes which do not allow for large extents of ground plane without slotting.