Microwave Active Inductors

Abstract

In this letter, the experimental proofs of two microwave active inductors with very high quality factor, namely Differential Boot-Strapped Inductor (D-BSI) and Cross-Coupled Differential Boot-Strapped Inductor (CCD-BSI), are presented. These circuits can be effectively implemented in modern RF-CMOS processes for high-Q equivalent integrated inductors at high frequency. The cases of study at 13 GHz have been designed and implemented in a modern standard 90 nm bulk CMOS process. The measurements on the test-chips show an equivalent inductance close to 3.2 nH with an associated quality factor up to 400 and a wide linearity range.