Development of characterization methods for micromachined embedded test structures

Abstract

Methods of characterizing low frequency embedded passives on silicon substrates are suggested. Durioid fixtures and on-wafer methods are discussed for extracting Q factor of embedded coils on high and low resistivity silicon. Feedline designs are discuss and data is presented regarding the performance limitation of CPW based design architectures. A quality (Q) factor of an embedded inductor > 50 is successfully extracted for operation below 1 GHz based on a 15 turn configuration using S-parameter measurements. Finally inductor performance in terms of Q factor is presented based on on-wafer measurements.