IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 39

sscs DL Francesco svelto speaking at the University of thessaloniki
on 12 November.

enjoying dinner in thessaloniki (from left): Dr. Nikos haralabidis
(Broadcom, Greece), Dr. Iason Vassiliou (Broadcom, Greece), prof.
Francesco svelto (University of pavia, Italy), prof. paul sotiriadis
(NtUa, Greece), Dr. Manolis terrovitis (Qualcomm, Greece), and
Dr. panagiotis Betzios (Broadcom, Greece).

at dinner in thessaloniki: prof. Francesco svelto, prof. alkis hatzopoulos, ph.D. student Vasilis Gerakis, and prof. stelios siskos.

In athens, from left, Dr. Manolis terrovitis (Qualcomm, Greece), Dr.
panagiotis Betzios (Broadcom, Greece), Dimitris tzounakos (research
collaborator, NtUa, Greece), Dr. Nikos haralabidis (Broadcom, Greece),
Dr. Iason Vassiliou (Broadcom, Greece), and prof. Francesco svelto (Univ.
of pavia, Italy).

aBstract
Transceivers for wireless communications at millimeter waves are
becoming pervasive in several commercial fields. Taking advantage
of a cut-off frequency of hundreds of gigahertz, CMOS technology
is rapidly expanding from radio frequency to millimeter waves, thus
enabling low-cost compact solutions [1]. The question we raise is
whether scaling is just providing advantages at millimeter waves or
not. While transistors improve their performances with scaling [2], this
is not necessarily true for passive components, where the impact of the
different back end of line (BEOL) plays a key role [3]. Figure 1 shows
a comparison between the stack of metals in 65 nm versus 32 nm.
The thickness of the two topmost copper metals is the same in the two
technologies, but layers are closer to the substrate in the 32-nm node.
The distance is almost 10% shorter. Lower metal levels, usually employed for higher density devices, do not lend themselves to realizing
high-frequency components. In fact, in 32 nm, they are much thinner and closer to the substrate, thus suffering a significant increase of
both series resistance and parallel capacitance. The reduction of metal
physical size also determines a reduction of contact footprint, which
is in turn responsible for a significant increase of device resistance. In
this talk, focusing on ICs for millimeter waves frequency synthesis, we
present experimental data of single devices in a wide-frequency range.
In particular, switches used in voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs)
for tank components tuning, MOM and AMOS capacitors, inductors.

Top-Level
Metal

High-Level
Metals
High-Level
Vias

Low-Level
Metals

Low-Level
Vias
CMOS 65 nm

CMOS 32 nm

Figure 1. a BeOL comparison between 650-nm and 32-nm cMOs nodes.

IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE

W i n t e r 2 0 15

39



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015

IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - Cover1
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - Cover2
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 1
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 2
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 3
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 4
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 5
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 6
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 7
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 8
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 9
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 10
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 11
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 12
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 13
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 14
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 15
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 16
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 17
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 18
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IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 38
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 39
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IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 41
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 42
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IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 46
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 47
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - 48
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - Cover3
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2015 - Cover4
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/solidstatecircuits_winter2017
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/solidstatecircuits_fall2015
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