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aaron_do

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process info
Jan 28^th, 2007, 7:54pm

Hi all,

does anybody know if there's a substantial difference in the linearity (3rd order) of the Chartered Semiconductor 0.18 micron RF CMOS process and the IBM 0.18 micron process? Also what about the difference between 0.13 and 0.18?

One last question, what is a typical Q value of on-chip inductors using the IBM 0.13 micron process at 2.4 GHz? Say 6 nH...

thanks,
Aaron

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ACWWong

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Re: process info
Reply #1 - Jan 29^th, 2007, 3:41am

i used 0.18u and 0.13u in my last two projects... no substantial difference in 3rd linearity when Voverdrive is the same... obviously in 0.13u you have the lower voltage contraint.
Q of a 6nH at 2.4GHz in IBM 0.13um... depends on your inductor design, BEOL metal stack etc, but i would reckon Q above 10 should be achieveable at 2.5 GHz (an 6nH should be able to achieve peak Q near at 2~3GHz depending on your area constaints).

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aaron_do Senior Fellow Offline Posts: 1398	Re: process info Reply #2 - Jan 29^th, 2007, 5:28pm thanks aw. Do you happen to know if there's a big difference in the performance of IBM, CSM, TSMC? Aaron
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ACWWong

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Re: process info
Reply #3 - Jan 30^th, 2007, 2:41am

i don't think there is much difference in performance between IBM and TSMC as its all CMOS @0.13u/0.18u. Can't remember if they both offer higher resistance substrate in the RFCMOS process rather than the bulk CMOS... for RF chips higher sub resitivity is better for passives and isolation.

IBM's PDK delivery is better in terms of content (I have not seen TSMC at 0.13u, but at 0.18u the support was poor last i looked). .. and have quite alot of RF information (good inductor/MIM models... varactors ok) and plenty of metal options.

I haven't used chartered... so can;t comment...

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loose-electron Senior Fellow Offline Best Design Tool = Capable Designers Posts: 1638 San Diego California	Re: process info Reply #4 - Jan 30^th, 2007, 12:58pm The IBM model team does a much better job at model accuracy than TSMC or chartered. Orders of magnitude better
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aaron_do Senior Fellow Offline Posts: 1398	Re: process info - thanks Reply #5 - Jan 31^st, 2007, 12:54am thanks for the info, Aaron
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