Abstract
ABSTRACT To enhance the circuit and system performance, the major effort has been focused on improving the device speed through scaling of device dimensions. The decrease in minimum feature size of devices has led to a property decrease in interconnect cross-sectional area and pitch. The parasitic resistance, capacitance, and inductance associated with interconnects are beginning to influence the circuit performance and the evolution of deep sub-micron ULSI technology. Therefore, in chapter 2, variable structures of Si-based IC interconnects are discussed, and a deeper understanding of the loss and delay characteristics is obtained. The trade-offs of different designs are also addressed. As operation frequency keep increasing, microwave IC structures have suffered from a lack of high Q miniature passive elements, which have applications such as high-performance filters and low-phase noise oscillators. Furthermore, that millimeter microwave integrated-circuit combine with CMOS technology to decrease cost is the current trend for MMIC design. In chapter 3, a high Q, multiple-ring resonant filter is designed in a standard 0.18 µm CMOS process. The measurement results show a loaded and unloaded Q of 38 and 83, respectively. In chapter 4, a high-performance Ka-band balanced amplifier is designed in a standard 0.18 µm. A 3-dB Lange coupler is designed using the multiple-interconnect process of CMOS. A bandwidth of 7.5 GHz and a maximan gain of 21 dB are obtained.