Low Crosstalk and High Q-Factor Inductor Based on Multiple Guard-Ring Design

The RF inductor suffers from larger area and low Q-factor in CMOS process. With technology scaling down, the guard-ring design of inductor is limited by BEOL double pattern process, which induces higher crosstalk coupling noise in RF circuits. A novel closed multiple guard-ring inductor is proposed based on SMIC FinFET process. The crosstalk of the novel design is about 60% lower, equivalent to about 10% area saving. Benefiting from higher shielding effect, the Q-factor has about 2-5% improvement.