Skin effect considerations in K-Band designs

In this paper, the skin effect of on-chip transmission lines and inductors at K-Band operating frequencies are investigated. Two microstrip lines with different lengths are simulated and compared with each other. A patterned ground shielded inductor is simulated using various meshing strategies and the results are compared. A 24 GHz common source CMOS low noise amplifier is designed, simulated and measured. The results show that, at K band operating frequencies Electro Magnetic simulations with proper edge mesh are able to model the skin effect precisely and show good agreement with the measured performance.