Nonlinear characteristics of on-chip spiral inductors under high RF power

This paper explores silicon CMOS on-chip spiral inductors performance degradation under high RF power. A novel methodology to calibrate and characterize on-chip spiral inductor with large signal inputs (high/medium power) is presented. Experiments showed 12% degradation of quality factor in a particular inductor design when 34 dBm RF power was applied. The degradation of quality factor of inductor can be attributed to a local self heating effect. Thermal imaging of such an inductor under high RF power validates the hypothesis.