RF circuit design aspects of spiral inductors on silicon

Abstract

Spiral inductors are performance-limiting components of monolithic radio frequency (RF) circuits, such as voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO), low-noise amplifiers (LNA), and passive-element filters. The quality-factor (Q) of the inductors is limited by resistive losses in the spiral coil and by substrate losses. High Qs are achieved in state-of-the-art silicon fabrication processes. The spiral inductors RF circuit design processes are presented.