Open AccessBroadband and high‐ K passive balun using 16 sides geometry for silicon‐based RFICs
Author(s) -
Zhang Hua Bin,
Cai Min,
He Xiaoyong,
Wu Haijun,
Li Zhengpin,
Tang F.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
electronics letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.375
H-Index - 146
ISSN - 1350-911X
DOI - 10.1049/el.2013.4083
Subject(s) - balun , broadband , electrical engineering , materials science , silicon , cmos , radio frequency , monolithic microwave integrated circuit , acoustics , coupling (piping) , integrated circuit , amplitude , electronic circuit , optoelectronics , electronic engineering , engineering , antenna (radio) , optics , physics , telecommunications , amplifier , metallurgy
A broadband and high‐ K monolithic passive balun for silicon‐based radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) are presented. It utilises the top level thick Cu metal and adopts a 16‐side geometry. The proposed balun is designed and fabricated with a 0.13‐μm CMOS mixed‐signal 1P6M process. The measured results show that the amplitude imbalance is < 0.2 dB and the phase imbalance is within 4° from the frequency range of 0.1–7 GHz. Compared with the typical octagonal balun, the proposed design achieves the same coupling coefficients K and attains an enhancement in the transmission efficiency S 21 within the frequency range of 0.1–20 GHz, and the consumed chip area is reduced by 3%.