Inspired by our popular RFIC Inductor Toolkit for Silicon technologies, several ADS users have been asking for an MMIC version that addresses III-V technologies.

Inductor Synthesis for III-V Technologies

Inductor Toolkit is much more than a simple shape library:

  • Fully scalable layout Pcells for popular inductor geometries with estimated L value
  • Automation to synthesize inductor dimensions based on inductance
  • Automation to find the best performing inductor with best possible Q factor,
    within given geometry limitations
  • Automation to fit an accurate, wideband circuit model, and output that as an *.scs netlist file

Main differences compared to the Silicon RFIC version:

  • Additional non-symmetric inductor shapes
  • User can fully configure & customize technology, whereas RFIC version is factory configured
  • Equivalent circuit model for non-conductive substrate

 

“Handy, simple, easy to use. A good ADS Momentum tool to have for finding a spiral inductor layout given area and value constraints. It also allows you to choose among multiple layouts based on inductor Q.
I have personally used it for various layout geometries including rectangular, octagonal and circular.”

John Bayruns
Sr. RF IC Design Engineer
Duet Microelectronics

 

Inductor Shapes for Inductor Toolkit III-V

At the present time, MMIC Inductor Toolkit provides these shapes:

Square is a regular square inductor (not symmetrical) with four different orientations of the underpass.

Octagon 180 deg is an octagon inductor (not symmetrical) with fixed 180° angle for the underpass direction.

Octagon diff. is a non-symmetric octagon inductor on a single metal layer, with two pins.

Octagon diff. stacked is similar to Octagon diff., but with stacked metal on spiral and underpass layer. Compared to the single layer octagon, this inductor has less resistance at low frequencies, but an increased capacitance between the turns, so that the frequency of maximum Q is lower. Use this geometry when the Q factor is limited by ohmic conductor loss.

Square diff. is similar to Octagon diff., but for square inductor shape.

Square diff. stacked is similar to is similar to Square diff., but with stacked metal on spiral and underpass layer.

Circular is a non-symmetric circular spiral.  For automatic synthesis, the number of turns can be set in quarter turns, for 0°, 90°, 180° and 270° exit direction. When the artwork cell is used in manual layout, the number of
turns can be set in arbitrary fractional turns, and width can also be tapered.

Single turn (N=1) centertap is a symmetric, circular shape with single turn and center tap.

 

Pricing and availability

Mühlhaus MMIC Inductor Toolkit III-V was released in May 2017. Configuration for different technologies can easily be done by the end user, but is also available as a service.

License cost: 5800 Euro for a floating license (purchase, perpetual license for one concurrent user)
Introduction price valid until October 2017: 3300 Euro
Education license: 2500 Euro

Please contact us for more detailed information.