Inductor Design Optimization for RFIC Application

This paper investigates an electromigration (EM) hardened design optimization for integrated circuit inductors. Inductor layouts that utilize a metal reservoir and a stack via/metal have improved EM performance and heat dissipation. The improvement can be converted to inductor scaling and RFIC die size reduction. High-frequency measurements indicate that the new inductor layout design does not affect the inductor-Q and circuit power gain. Computer simulation farther validates the robust performance of the scaled inductor and the RFIC circuits.