Modelling Considerations for Coupled Lines in CMOS Back-End-Of-Line at
mm-Wave Frequencies
Abstract
We investigate the effect of passivation contouring, surface roughness,
and sidewall etch tapering on the FEM modelling accuracy of mm-wave
couplers in CMOS BEOL. It is found that accurate passivation contouring
leads to a marginal improvement of 0.15 dB in peak coupling prediction
accuracy, but introducing a sidewall taper of 104ᵒ can improve the
prediction of peak coupling by up to 0.37 dB. Including surface
roughness of 5 % and 10 % of metal thickness did not have a notable
improvement on prediction of peak coupling.