Synthesized high-impedance CMOS thin-film transmission line

A synthetic quasi-TEM CMOS transmission line (TL) of wide range characteristic impedance from 58.3 to 95 /spl Omega/ is presented for miniaturization of CMOS RFIC. The synthetic TL consists of unit cells made of complementary-conducting strips (CCS) and connecting arm for signal interface residing on the M5 and M1 metal layers of a typical 0.25 /spl mu/m 1P5M CMOS process. Measured results and theoretical data indicate that the loss per guiding wavelength of the meandered CCS TL is about 13% lower than that of the meandered microstrip of characteristic impedance 86.4 /spl Omega/ at 40 GHz.