High Q-Factor Multipath Spiral Inductor for Microwave Applications

Maximum quality factor and small occupying-area inductors are requirements for wireless communication devices like cell phones and wireless networks with low cost, microwave integrated circuit applications. The quality factor is a crucial design consideration for inductors. An on-chip spiral inductor's quality factor rises with frequency and achieves a maximum value before falling as a result of ohmic loss in the series resistance and substrate loss. The effective resistance and quality factor increase at high frequencies due to the proximity effect and skin effect-induced in non-uniform current density dispersion in the coil edge. The multipath method increases the inductors quality factor while decreasing the skin and proximity effects. Sonnet software was used for the simulation. The results show that the proposed inductors maximum quality factor was around 90 at 210 MHz. The inductors dimensions are 1000μm*1000μm.