Design guidelines for low-loss slow-wave coplanar transmission lines in RF-CMOS technology

✍ Scribed by D. Kaddour; H. Issa; M. Abdelaziz; F. Podevin; E. Pistono; J.-M. Duchamp; P. Ferrari

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 781 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0895-2477
• DOI: 10.1002/mop.23865

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Slow wave coplanar transmission lines (S‐CPW) based on conventional coplanar CPW transmission lines with a floating patterned ground plane are good candidates for the integration of distributed RF circuits for front‐end modules. They offer high quality factors when compared to conventional coplanar transmission lines. In this article, guidelines are carried out for the design of such transmission lines. Simulations are first compared to already published measurements thus validating the simulation method used throughout the article. Next, considering a standard 0.35 μm CMOS process, design guidelines are presented in order to determine the characteristic impedance, the phase velocity, and the dielectric effective constant of the S‐CPW transmission lines, along with the attenuation loss and the quality factor. The effects of CPW dimensions, the floating strips duty cycle, the floating strip width, and the ground plane width are studied, and an optimized 50‐Ω transmission line is designed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 3029–3036, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23865