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New TSV-Based applications: Resonant inductive coupling, variable inductor,

power amplifier, bandpass filter, and antenna

Article · August 2015

DOI: 10.1109/NEWCAS.2015.7182000

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New TSV-Based Applications: Resonant
Inductive Coupling, Variable Inductor, Power
Amplifier, Bandpass Filter, and Antenna
Khaled Salah
Mentor Graphics
Cairo, Egypt
khaled_mohamed@mentor.com
Abstract—This paper presents new TSV-Based applications
such as resonant inductive coupling, variable Inductor, power
amplifier, bandpass filter, and antenna. These proposed
systems use a spiral inductor built using TSV technology. The
Resonant Inductive Coupling system increases the amount of
magnetic flux linked between coils and improves the power
transmission significantly. A proposed architecture based on
TSV technology for a variable bridge spiral inductor is
demonstrated and characterized. Where, we can obtain
different values for the inductor according to the switch state,
whether it is ON or OFF. In addition, TSV is used to construct
transformer-coupled power amplifier. A new architecture for
on-chip bandpass filters, based on through silicon via (TSV)
technology. This architecture is the first in literature.
According to the simulation results, the TSV-based bandpass
filter has an insertion loss of 1.5 dB at 90 GHz and 20 GHz
passband from 80 to 100 GHz. This band can be tuned by
changing the dimensions of the coupled TSVs. TSV are also
used to build an antenna on high resistivity substrate. The
characteristic of this antenna is a function of TSV diameter,
TSV length, and silicon resistivity. Compared to conventional
on-chip antennas who suffers from low gain and low radiation
efficiency, our novel antenna provides better performance
parameters such as higher radiation pattern efficiency and
higher gain as the antenna delivers a high gain of 5.8 dBi and
the radiation efficiency is 86% over the prescribed range of
frequencies. The proposed antenna is centered at 90 GHz with
20 GHz bandwidth. The overall area of the proposed antenna
is 400μm×100μm. Building the antenna using TSV technology
not only improves the performance, but also improves the
isolation between the antenna and other active circuits.
Index Terms— Three-Dimensional ICs, Through Silicon Via,
TSV, Spiral Inductor, Wireless, Filter, Antenna, Resonance.
I. INTRODUCTION
For decades, semiconductors manufacturers have
shrinking transistor size in ICs to achieve the yearly
increases in performance described by Moore’s Law, but
interconnect delay dominate with scaling. The TSV is an
innovative vertical electrical connection passing completely
through a silicon substrate. By using TSV technology, three
dimensional (3D) integrated circuits can be built with better
1
Yehea Ismail
AUC University
Cairo, Egypt
y.ismail@aucegypt.edu
performance and small area, where it reduces parasitics and
losses and occupies less die area by making use of the z-
direction [1]-[8]. In this paper, many TSV-based
applications are introduced such as resonant inductive
coupling, variable Inductor, power amplifier, bandpass
filter, and antenna.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, the
proposed applications are introduced and discussed
Conclusions are given in Section III.
II. THE TSV-BASED APPLICATIONS
In this section, the wireless TSV architecture is analyzed.
The EM simulation results are presented, and a closed form
expression for the coupling coefficient is deduced.
A. The Proposed Resonant Inductive Coupling
In our previous work, A novel on-chip wireless
communication technique is proposed based on TSV spiral
inductors, [9]. In this study, the concept of a resonance
inductive coupling compared to conventional one is shown
in Fig. 1, where we have external capacitance to create a
resonance at the transmitter and receiver. The TSV
inductors exhibit near field wireless communications,
where the inductive coupling can be used for on-chip
communications between adjacent blocks. The important
benchmark for this TSV-Based novel wireless transmitter is
the coupling coefficient ( ). The physical parameters of the
coupled TSV inductors and their typical ranges are defined
in TABLE I
TABLE I. To validate the functionality of our design, we
tested our TSV-based inductive link. The verification
system is very simple and consists of a transmitter and a
receiver pair that uses inductive coupling. The test-bed is
employed in SPICE simulations. The following parameters,
L=2.3nH, k=0.22 (communication distance =1mm),
V=1volt were assumed. Eye diagram simulation shows that
the transceiver fed with a 1Gbps input data stream can
maintain very small jitter.
 2

C. The Proposed Power Amplifier

To prove the applicability of proposed TSV-based

(a) transformer structure, we built a transformer-coupled power
amplifier depicted Fig. 3, where M1, M2: constitute the
differential pair, LPR, LS: represent the inductance of the
primary and secondary coils of the transformer, LDD, LGND :
are the inductance to the supply voltage and ground
connection (including bond wires), Cb : is the on-chip
bypass capacitor (with series resistance R1), RL is the 50
load resistor. The proposed TSV-based transformer
(b)
architecture provides small area (30 Pm)2 for typical design
values.
Fig. 1 (a) Conventional inductive coupling, (b) Resonant inductive coupling.

TABLE I
TSV-BASED SPIRAL INDUCTOR TYPICAL VALUES D. The Proposed Bandpass Filter
Design Parameters Typical range Typical
design value
Number of turns (N) 1-3 3
TSV diameter ( ) 5-100 Pm 30 Pm
This work introduces the TSV interconnect paradigm as a
TSV length ( ) 50-300 Pm 300 Pm new architecture for the bandpass filter. The new
Metal track length ( ) 20-100 Pm 20 Pm architecture is based on our previously introduced TSV-
Space between two metal tracks ( ) 10-100 Pm 10 Pm based spiral inductor [9], where a coupled TSV-based
Distance between the two coils ( ) 1000-10000um 1000 Pm inductor pair can be converted into bandpass filter by
adding series and shunt capacitor (Fig. 4), [10]. TSV is also
used to form the capacitors to save area. TSV capacitance
B. The Proposed Variable Inductor vs. gate voltage and its distinct operation regions are shown
A proposed architecture based on TSV technology for a in Fig. 5.
variable bridge spiral inductor is shown in Fig. 2. Where, The HFSS electromagnetic simulation results show the
we can obtain different values for the inductor according to following points:
the switch state, whether it is ON or OFF.
(1) Copper is the best choice for the conductor to
reduce the conductor loss.
(2) High resistivity substrate (HRS) is the best choice
for the substrate to reduce the insertion loss.
(3) TSVs with larger diameters reduce the insertion
loss.
(4) The coupling effects between the TSVs mainly
decide the performance of the bandpass filter.
From the electric field distribution, it is noticed
that the most of electric field is focused on the
surface of the TSVs, which is the major source of
coupling effect.
(5) The proposed filter has an insertion loss of 1.5 dB
at 90 GHz and 20 GHz passband from 80 to 100
GHz (Fig. 6). This band can be tuned by changing
the dimensions of the coupled TSVs. These results
show that the proposed filter can be practically
used in on-chip design.
(6) The filter size is 180x120x300 μm (xyz).

Fig. 2 Principle of variable bridge inductor. When switch is OFF, series

inductance becomes L0 and when switch is ON, it becomes L0-∆ . (a) Basic
structure, (b) switch OFF, (c) switch ON.
 3

S21

0
-5
-10

S21(dB)
-15
-20 BW
-25
f0
-30

100
110
120
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
75
80
90
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 3 TSV-based transformer-coupled power amplifier.

(a)

Port1 Port2 S11

0
-5
-10
S11(dB)

-15
-20
-25
Fig. 4 A second order bandpass filter, where the inductors and capacitors
are all TSV-based, where f = , BW = =
S
, R is the
-30
S S
load impedance. This filter is implemented using TSV technology. The -35
capacitor is a capacitor with the Si substrate as a terminal. 0 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95 105 115 125
Frequency (GHz)
Capacitance
Low Freq Curve

Cox Depletion (b)

(A) Region (C)

Fig. 6 EM Simulated results of TSV bandpass Filter structure (a) S21, (b)
S11.
Inversion / Deep
Accumulation Depletion Region
Region
E. The Proposed Antenna
(D)
(B)
High Freq Curve The geometry of the proposed TSV-based antenna is
shown in Fig. 7, where a TSV penetrates through the silicon
substrate, and connects M1 and the ground beneath the
silicon substrate. The insertion loss for different TSV
(E)
diameter, TSV length, and silicon resistivity is studied.
Deep Depletion Curve Some of the important results from electromagnetic
simulations using ANSOFT HFSS, [12], are summarized
VFB VT in the followings:
Gate Voltage 1) The Antenna is providing acceptable insertion loss
(~ -0.5 dB) and return loss (~ -0.5 dB) if the
Fig. 5 Capacitance vs. gate voltage of a TSV capacitor and its distinct
operation regions: (A) accumulation, (B) depletion, (C)-(D) inversion.
silicon resistivity is higher than 1000 Ohm.cm).
Curve (C) is at low frequency and (D) at high frequency, (E) deep 2) The radiation efficiency is 86% (Fig. 8), and the
depletion, [11]. antenna delivers a high gain of 5.8 dBi.
 4

3) The proposed antenna is centered at 90 GHz with III. CONCLUSIONS

20 GHz bandwidth. In this paper, a new TSV-Based applications such as resonant
4) The overall area of the proposed antenna is inductive coupling, variable Inductor, power amplifier, bandpass
409μm×100μm. filter, and antenna. These proposed systems use a spiral inductor
built using TSV technology. The Resonant Inductive Coupling
system increases the amount of magnetic flux linked between coils
and improves the power transmission significantly. A proposed
architecture based on TSV technology for a variable bridge spiral
inductor is demonstrated and characterized. Where, we can obtain
different values for the inductor according to the switch state,
Patch whether it is ON or OFF. In addition, TSV is used to construct
transformer-coupled power amplifier. A new architecture for on-
chip bandpass filters, based on through silicon via (TSV)
technology. This architecture is the first in literature. According
to the simulation results, the TSV-based bandpass filter has an
High- insertion loss of 1.5 dB at 90 GHz and 20 GHz passband from 80
to 100 GHz. This band can be tuned by changing the dimensions
Resistivity of the coupled TSVs. TSV are also used to build an antenna on
T Silicon high resistivity substrate. The characteristic of this antenna is a
S function of TSV diameter, TSV length, and silicon resistivity.
Compared to conventional on-chip antennas who suffers from low
V gain and low radiation efficiency, our novel antenna provides
better performance parameters such as higher radiation pattern
efficiency and higher gain as the antenna delivers a high gain of
5.8 dBi and the radiation efficiency is 86% over the prescribed
range of frequencies. The proposed antenna is centered at 90 GHz
with 20 GHz bandwidth. The overall area of the proposed antenna
is 400μm×100μm. Building the antenna using TSV technology not
only improves the performance, but also improves the isolation
between the antenna and other active circuits.

Fig. 7 The proposed TSV-based patch Antenna, with high resistivity

substrate and a TSV penetrates through the silicon substrate, and connects REFERENCES
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Fig. 8 The proposed antenna radiation pattern.

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