Combined Electromagnetic and Circuit Approaches for Accurate RF Circuits Modeling

This paper discusses a methodology combining electromagnetic (EM) modelling and circuit analysis for optimisation of RF component performances. A modal-state formalism is considered to link electromagnetic field configurations (modal-states) with equivalent circuit model representations. Such link renders possible topology-driven design and synthesis where coupled analysis of dielectric/conductor losses and energy storage capabilities allows for optimised trade-off of low couplings and high Q-factors. The proposed methodology is applied to two different Silicon-based technologies developed by NXP-Semiconductors and LASS-CNRS through specifically selected RF filtering structures. The ability of the obtained modelling results to capture distributed effects demonstrates satisfactory agreement with full-wave 2.5D and 3D EM analysis with acceptable correlations to measurement data. Guidelines and design rules are derived in order to facilitate incorporation of topology influences at earlier design stages of RFICs.