Low Voltage High-Q CMOS Active Inductor For RF Applications

In this paper, an improved design of a high-Q factor CMOS active inductor operating in the mid MHz frequency range is introduced. Analysis of equations has been used to gain insight into behavior of the active inductor. Moreover, based on these equations and their analysis, ways of improving quality factor are discussed. Performance improvement based on this new design coupled with use of feedback series resistor and external capacitor are shown and analyzed. Simulation results and performance improvement are compared and contrasted in the CMOS AMI 0.5u Process based on existing literature. CMOS active inductors have found increasing applications in highspeed analog signal processing and data communications circuits due to the inability of on-chip spiral inductors to scale with technology. Its vast range of applications includes impedance matching circuits, filter circuits, oscillators, and lumped element power dividers.