Thermal effects in suspended RF spiral inductors |
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Authors: | Sagkol H Sinaga S Burghartz JN Rejaei B Akhnoukh A |
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Affiliation: | Dept. of Electr. Eng., Delft Univ. of Technol., Netherlands; |
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Abstract: | Self-heating effects on integrated suspended and bulk spiral inductors are explored. A dc current is fed through the inductors during measurement to emulate dc and radio frequency power loss on the inductor. A considerable drop in Q by /spl sim/18% at 36.5 mW is observed for suspended coils with 3-/spl mu/m aluminum metallization compared to reference inductors on bulk-Si. Simulations in Ansoft's ePhysics indicate that, due to the thermal isolation of the suspended coil, the power loss from resistive self-heating in the metal has to be transferred outwards through the metal turns. This also results in a thermal time constant. This time constant is measured to be /spl sim/10 ms, meaning that it can affect power circuits operating in pulsed mode. |
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