An ESD-Protection-Free Monolithic Harmonic Filter for WLAN Applications

Description

Modern multi-band and multi-mode handheld wireless devices require novel approaches for the integration of passive elements into the radio front-end. In this paper, we present the design of an electrostatic discharge (ESD)-protection-free harmonic filter using an improved highresistivity silicon copper technology for the monolithic integration of active and passive devices. Typical metalisolator-metal (MIM) capacitors are replaced by inter-digital metal capacitors which provide a high breakdown voltage of up to 800 V. As the machine-mode ESD voltage is lower than 500 V, this filter can operate without ESD protection. In this design, electromagnetic (EM) simulation was used extensively for inductor and filter optimization. The fabricated device has an insertion loss of less than 0.3 dB and 2nd and 3rd harmonic attenuations of more than 30 dB for the WLAN 2.4 GHz frequency band and features a size of 0.75×0.67 mm2.

Period	13 Jan 2010
Event title	10th Topical Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems
Event type	Conference
Location	United StatesShow on map