Unified parasitic de-embedding methodology of on-wafer multi-port device characterization

Systematic de-embedding methodology is proposed for on-wafer characterization of multi-port devices in the RF/microwave regime. This approach incorporates the shield-based measurement technique with the concept of scalable interconnect parameters from transmission-line theory. By grounding the metal shield, the port-to-port coupling and substrate leakage can be substantially mitigated and thus the deembedding procedure can be simplified. We introduce the open and thru dummy structures to eliminate the parasitics associated with the probe pads and interconnects. The four-port spiral transformer and its corresponding dummies were characterized up to 20 GHz, and the influences of the de-embedding accuracy on device characteristics were also demonstrated.