Deep trench guard technology to suppress coupling between inductors in silicon RF ICs

Trench guard technology was proposed to suppress the coupling between inductors, and to reduce crosstalk in silicon RF ICs. The test structure adopting a deep trench guard ring showed a coupling less than -40 dB in the frequency range of 0.5-20 GHz, and negligible change in designed inductance value up to 10 GHz. Furthermore, it can be also used to isolate a noisy circuit block from other quiet blocks in mixed signal silicon RF ICs.