isolation and 21-dB LO-RF isolation, even if two kinds of

mixers are fabricated in adjacent areas of the same wafer.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the National Chip Implementation

Center (CIC) for technical support. This work was supported by
the National Science Council of Republic of China under contract
nos. NSC 93-2752-E-009-003-PAE and NSC 93-2219-E-009-026,
and by the Ministry of Economic Affairs under contract no. 92EC-17-A-05-S1-020.
REFERENCES
1. B. Gilbert, The MICROMIXER: A highly linear variant of the Gilbert
mixer using a bisymmetric Class-AB input stage, IEEE J Solid-State
Circ 32 (1997), 14121423.
2. J. Durec and E. Main, A linear class AB single-ended to differential
transconverter suitable for RF circuits, IEEE MTT-S Dig, San Francisco, CA, (1996), 10711074.
3. J. Durec, An integrated silicon bipolar receiver subsystem for 900-MHz
ISM band applications, IEEE J Solid-State Circ 33 (1998), 13521372.
4. J.G. Su, H.M. Hsu, S.C. Wong, C.Y. Chang, T.Y. Huang, and J.Y.C.
Sun, Improving the RF performance of 0.18-m CMOS with deep
n-well implantation, IEEE EDL 22 (2001), 481 483.
2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

RF EQUIVALENT-CIRCUIT MODEL OF
INTERCONNECT BENDS BASED ON
S-PARAMETER MEASUREMENTS
Xiaomeng Shi,1 Jianguo Ma,1 Beng Hwee Ong,1
Kiat Seng Yeo,1 Manh Anh Do,1 and Erping Li2
1
Center for Integrated Circuits & Systems
Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798
2
Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC)
1 Science Park Road #01-01, The Capricorn
Singapore Science Park II, Singapore 117528
Received 22 September 2004
ABSTRACT: A modied model for RF interconnect bends on lossy
substrate in CMOS technology is presented. The model parameters
are extracted directly from the on-wafer S-parameter measurements.
The accuracy is veried up to 20 GHz by the measurements of the
test structures. 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt
Technol Lett 45: 170 173, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20760

Figure 1 Test structures of the fabricated interconnect bends. [Color

gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.
interscience.wiley.com.]

In this paper, interconnects with both 90 and 45 bends are

studied. As illustrated in Figure 1, test structures with different
dimensions were designed and fabricated on the top metal layer,
employing the 0.18-m RF CMOS process by Chartered Semiconductor Manufacture Ltd. (CSM). The S-parameters of these
structures were measured up to 20 GHz and used for the characterization [8].

Key words: equivalent circuits; interconnect models; scattering parameters measurement

1. INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, there is a tremendous interest in using conventional

CMOS technology for RF and microwave applications [1]. However, the low-resistivity substrate used in the RF CMOS process
causes signicant high-frequency losses. Additionally, the operating frequencies already reach multi-giga Hertz. As a result, RF
interconnects play an increasingly important role in RFICs [2]. To
date, one of the limiting factors of RFIC designs is the absence of
accurate interconnect models [3]. In the literature, most studies
have focused on simple structures such as straight lines, doubleparalleled lines, and so forth [4 7]. Interconnects with bends, very
often used in real designs, are seldom reported.

170

Figure 2 Structure of interconnect bends

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 45, No. 2, April 20 2005

TABLE 2

Figure 3 Proposed straight-line interconnect model

Figure 4

Extracted Multiplication Factor

Angle

L 300 m
W 1.5 m

L 300 m
W 5 m

L 300 m
W 10 m

90
45

0.90
0.95

0.88
0.92

0.87
0.90

the shunt block represent the capacitance and resistance of the

lossy substrate, respectively.
However, if an interconnect consists of several subsegments,
the inductance of the entire trace is not equal to the sum of the
inductance of each segment. That is, if there is a corner segment
between the two straight-line segments, the magnetic-ux linkage
between the two straight-line segments is reduced. Consequently,
the values of the inductance of these segments are smaller than
those extracted from the straight-line test structures with the same
dimension. Hence, the two- networks of the straight-line segment become nonidentical. In order to fully characterize this
effect, the series inductance in the -network of the straight-line

Improved model for the corner segment

The lumped equivalent-circuit model for microstrip bends was

introduced in [9]. However, this model cannot characterize the
lossy substrate of the CMOS process. In our improved model, the
substrate effects are included. The accuracy of the model was
veried by the on-wafer measurements. Moreover, it can be incorporated in the SPICE environment for circuit-design purposes.
2. MODEL CONSTRUCTION

For the test structures with 90 and 45 bends, the length of the
whole trace is xed at 300 m, while the widths varies from 1.5
m and 5 m to 10 m. The S-parameters of the test structures
were measured using an HP8510C Vector Network Analyzer. By
using the designed de-embedding structures, the parasitic effects
were removed.
According to Figure 2, the whole trace of the test structures can
be presented as three straight-line segments and two corner segments cascaded together. The proposed two- equivalent-circuit
model for the straight-line segments [10] is shown in Figure 3. As
for the corner segment, the modied T-network equivalent circuit
model shown in Figure 4 is proposed. L b and R b1 represent the
series inductance and resistance of the corner, while C b and R b2 in
TABLE 1

Figure 5 Magnitude comparison of S 11 for 90 bends

Extracted Parameters of Corners

Angle

Parameters

L 1.5 m
W 1.5 m

L 5 m
W 5 m

L 10 m
W 10 m

90
45
90
45
90
45
90
45

L b (pH)
L b (pH)
R b1 (m)
R b1 (m)
R b2 (k)
R b2 (k)
C b (fF)
C b (fF)

2.369
3.060
30.958
12.526
27.659
39.164
2.397
2.087

3.993
4.073
25.267
11.026
16.451
35.589
2.543
2.368

6.815
8.933
22.153
10.054
14.365
31.264
2.896
2.610

Figure 6

Phase comparison of S 11 for 90 bends

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 45, No. 2, April 20 2005

171

Figure 7 Magnitude comparison of S 12 for 90 bends

Figure 8

Phase comparison of S 12 for 90 bends

Figure 9 Magnitude comparison of S 11 for 45 bends

172

Figure 10 Phase comparison of S 11 of 45 bends

Figure 11

Magnitude comparison of S 12 of 45 bends

Figure 12 Phase comparison of S 12 of 45 bends

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 45, No. 2, April 20 2005

segments, which is connected to the corner segment, should be

modied. Hence, an additional parameter (0 1) was
introduced to represent this variation of the inductancee. That is,
the inductance L s in the second -network of straight segment 1,
L s in both of the two -networks of straight segment 2, and L s in
the rst -network of straight segment 3 were multiplied by factor
. As for the shunt blocks of the straight-line segments, the
inuences of the corner can be omitted; thus, the parameters were
kept unchanged.
3. RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND VERIFICATION

Based on the S-parameter measurements and the modied model,

the circuit parameters and the multiplication factor were extracted, as listed in Tables 1 and 2.
From Table 1, the properties of the corner segments can be
derived as follows: For the right-angled bends, the areas of the
corner segments under test are 1.5 1.5 m, 5 5 m, and 10
10 m. The corner segment with a larger geometrical dimension
has a larger series inductance and a larger substrate capacitance.
While its series resistance and substrate resistance are smaller. For
the 45 bends, the same trends can be observed.
From Table 2, it is observed that the multiplication factor is
always smaller than 1, as expected according to the previous
section.
In Figures 512, the simulated S-parameters based on our
model for 90 and 45 bends are compared with the corresponding
measurement results. Due to the symmetry of the test structures,
that is, S 11 S 22 and S 12 S 21 , only S 11 and S 12 were
compared. Magnitudes and phases were plotted separately.
From the illustrated graphs, there is satisfactory agreement
between the simulation results and the measurement data over the
whole frequency range under consideration. The average error is
less than 5%. At this point, the validity of our constructed model
has been demonstrated. This suggests that the modied equivalentcircuit model can characterize the properties of on-wafer interconnects with bends up to 20 GHz, which is adequate for RF applications.
4. SUMMARY

In this paper, an improved equivalent-circuit model for RF interconnect bends has been constructed. The accuracy of the model
was veried up to 20 GHz. This simple but accurate model can be
implemented into conventional circuit simulators as a subcircuit
prototype.
REFERENCES
1. B. Kleveland, C.H. Diaz, D. Vook, L. Madden, T.H. Lee, and S.S.
Wong, Exploiting CMOS reverse interconnect scaling in multigigahertz amplier and oscillator design, IEEE J Solid-State Circ 36
(2001), 1480 1489.
2. L.P.B. Katehi, J.F. Harvey, and K.J. Herrick, 3D integration of RF
circuits using Si micromachining, IEEE Microwave Mag 2 (2001),
30 39.
3. J. Zheng, Y.C. Hahm, A. Weisshaar, and V.K. Tripathi, CAD-oriented
equivalent circuit modeling of on-chip interconnects for RF integrated
circuits in CMOS technology, IEEE MTT-s Int Microwave Symp Dig
1 (1999), 3538.
4. R. Achar, M.S. Nakhla, and Q. Zhang, Full-wave analysis of highspeed interconnects using complex frequency hopping, IEEE Trans
CAD ICs Syst 17 (1998), 9971016.
5. Y. Eo and W.R. Eisenstadt, High-speed VLSI interconnect modeling
based on S-parameter measurements, IEEE Trans Comp Hybrids
Manufact Technol 16 (1993), 555562.
6. M. Sung, W. Ryu, H. Kim, J. Kim, and J. Kim, An efcient crosstalk
parameter extraction method for high-speed interconnection lines,

7.

8.

9.
10.

IEEE Trans Compon Packaging Manufac Technol B: Adv Packaging

23 (2000), 148 155.
B.Z. Wang, Y. Wang, W. Yu, and R. Mittra, A hybrid 2D ADI-FDTD
subgridding scheme for modeling on-chip interconnects, IEEE Trans
Compon Packaging Manufac Technol B: Adv Packaging 24 (2001),
528 533.
K.C. Gupta, R. Ramadoss, and H. Zhang, RF and microwave network
characterization: A concept-map-based tutorial, IEEE Trans Microwave Theory Tech MTT-51 (2003), 1326 1329.
T.C. Edwards and M.B. Steer, Foundations of Interconnect and Microstrip Design, Wiley, New York, 2000, pp. 235237.
X. Shi, J. Ma, B.H. Ong, K.S. Yeo, M.A. Do, and E. Li, Equivalent
circuit model of on-wafer interconnects for CMOS RFICs, 2004 IEEE
Radio Wireless Conf (to appear in RAWCON 2004).

2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

COUPLED-LINE 180 HYBRID COUPLER

Myun-Joo Park, and Byungje Lee
RFIC Research and Education Center
Kwangwoon University
447-1 Wolgye-dong, Nowon-ku
Seoul 139-701, Korea
Received 18 September 2004
ABSTRACT: A new 180 hybrid-coupler structure based on coupled
lines is proposed. It consists of two quarter-wave coupled-line sections and one half-wave transmission-line section. The coupled outputs are always in phase with the input signal for all ports, and the
through or direct outputs are either in phase or out of phase from
the input signal, depending on the input ports. It has a simple structure and wide bandwidth, and can be implemented over a wide range
of coupling values. 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt
Technol Lett 45: 173176, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20761
Key words: microwave coupler; 180 hybrid; coupled line
1. INTRODUCTION

Quadrature and 180 hybrid couplers are used extensively in

various microwave circuit applications [13]. In planar-circuit
technology, most couplers are based on coupling by coupled line
or branch line [1]. For quadrature-coupler applications, both the
branch line and the coupled line are widely used. However, most
180 coupler applications and studies have concentrated on the
ring or rat-race hybrids with branch lines. Some coupled-line 180
hybrid structures, such as the tapered coupled line hybrid [4], have
been proposed in the literature; but these are not as popular as the
ring hybrids.
This study proposes a new 180 hybrid structure based on
coupled lines. It consists of two quarter-wave coupled-line sections
and a half-wavelength line. In the proposed coupler, the coupled
outputs are in phase with the input signal and the direct or through
outputs are either in phase or out of phase with the input signal,
depending on the input ports. Therefore, two outputs with equal or
opposite phase can be obtained in the power-dividing applications
and the sum and the difference of the two input signals can be
obtained via power combining.
The proposed coupler has a simple structure and is easy to
design and fabricate. Also, the use of the coupled-line section
results in a wide-bandwidth characteristic in terms of input matching, and a wide range of coupling values, from weak to strong
coupler applications, can be obtained rather easily.

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 45, No. 2, April 20 2005

173