Characterization of a Planar Honeycomb-Based Inductor on Crosstalk/EMI Suppression

This paper presents a new planar inductor layout topology in honeycomb shape for crosstalk/electromagnetic interference (EMI) suppression. The proposed honeycomb-based (H-based) inductor uses six twisted subcoils having antiphase magnetic dipoles in staggered arrangement. The opposite directional magnetic dipoles result in a cancellation of interference emission to a nearby device. On the other hand, the interference emission from the nearby devices to the proposed H-based inductor can also be suppressed due to the twisted subcoils. In this study, the H-based inductor and the related testkeys implemented in TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology are designed and characterized. The crosstalk/interference suppression capability of the H-based inductor to the nearby testing inductor can be improved by around 15-30 dB as compared with the conventional single-turn spiral inductor, when the operation frequency is 2.3 GHz and even the edge-to-edge spacing between the inductors approaches to 10 μm.