A new on-wafer de-embedding technique for on-chip RF transmission line interconnect characterization

Abstract

This paper introduces a new de-embedding method for on-chip RF transmission line characterization. The new technique allows subtraction of pad parasitics based on measurements of only two L1=L and L2=N·L (N being a discrete number) long transmission lines with attached measurement pads. No dummy "open", "short" and "thru" devices are required. The new method has also been extended for the case when L 2≠N·L1 and only L1, L2 and ΔL= L2-L1 long interconnects with attached pads are available on the test wafer. The proposed methodology has been compared with several well-known de-embedding approaches ("thru", "open-short" and "short-open") and with simulation results from the industry standard electromagnetic solver (IE3D) for de-embedding of on-chip interconnects at frequencies up to 70GHz.