Experimental analysis of above-IC inductor performance with different patterned ground shield configurations and dummy metals

This paper presents the characterization of various patterned ground shield configurations for single ended inductor layouts: center ground shield (CGS), simple ground shield (SGS) and perimeter ground shield (PGS). Experiments and simulations show that when the shields connect only to one side of single-ended above-IC inductor RF ground pad, an asymmetric Q-behavior is obtained. HFSS simulations indicate that a better performance may be obtained by a symmetrical connection of the shield to the RF ground. Furthermore, the influence of different metal shield widths and spacings, as well as the effect of dummy metal dimensions on the performance of inductors has been assessed