Horror Vacui
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I've had a discourse with a more senior engineer where he meant that on-chip inductors are not a threat, they are used in mobile phone for 25+ years, and the only reason why an inductorless circuit is preferred for similar performance is the reduced area. On the other hand I fear that we can not so easily dismiss any coupling between the inductors, and even in the presence of a ground plane they could introduce spurs, pulling or shift the DC bias by down-convertion on non-linearities.
If any of you worked on such chips, could share how much trouble did those inductors caused for you? Does the system architect live in a constant paranoia about the possible sources of spurs, or these can be kept within limits required by the strict emission standards by good engineering practices. In the latter case - I guess - the main mischief makers are the IR drops, substrate coupling, conducted interference on the bias and reference lines.
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