Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 33605 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2010100066

Characteristic impedance extraction of embedded and integrated interconnects

¹ Université de Savoie, IMEP-LAHC, UMR CNRS 5130, 73376 Le Bourget du Lac, France
² STMicroelectronics, 850 rue J. Monnet, 38926 Crolles Cedex, France

Corresponding author: Bernard.Flechet@univ-savoie.fr

Received: 5 February 2010
Revised: 16 September 2010
Accepted: 17 December 2010
Published online: 22 February 2011

Abstract

In this paper we extract the characteristic impedance of Back End Of Line (BEOL) interconnections from radio frequency (RF) scattering parameter measurements. Quantification of the electric interconnection performance on a broad frequency band requires a good knowledge of the characteristic impedance Z_c and the propagation exponent γ. Propagation exponent is easily obtained by measuring two interconnections with different lengths. However, because of the complex test structure with mismatched ports where interconnections are embedded, the extraction of Z_c from scattering parameter measurements remains challenging. To solve this problem, we propose an approach based on the Winkel method without using simplified assumptions. Limits of validity for our de-embedding procedure to extract characteristic impedance are also analyzed.