Patent attributes
Methods and apparatus involving semiconductor devices based on coplanar striplines (CPS). In one example, high-speed microelectronic devices based on coplanar stripline implementations support differential signals in a range of approximately from 1 Gigahertz to at least 60 Gigahertz. In one aspect, CPS-based devices incorporate various features that dramatically increase the quality factor Q of the resulting device. In another aspect, an enhancement of the quality factor Q is achieved while at the same time reducing the phase velocity of one or more waves propagating in the device, thereby also facilitating the fabrication of relatively smaller devices. In yet another aspect, a tapered coplanar stripline configuration results in position-dependent line parameters, which may be exploited to achieve significantly high-Q devices. Examples of CPS-based devices incorporating such features include impedance matching devices, devices for power combining and division, delays, resonators, oscillators, filters, amplifiers, mixers and the like, including CMOS-based implementations of such devices.
