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Modelling Considerations for Coupled Lines in CMOS Back-End-Of-Line at mm-Wave Frequencies

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posted on 2022-01-25, 13:31 authored by Johannes VenterJohannes Venter, Tinus Stander

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.

Funding

National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) under grants 92526 and 93921

South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)

Eskom Tertiary Education Support Programme (TESP)

History

Email Address of Submitting Author

venter.jjp@tuks.co.za

ORCID of Submitting Author

0000-0002-8644-8951

Submitting Author's Institution

University of Pretoria

Submitting Author's Country

  • South Africa