A Simulation Study of High-Resistivity Substrates for RF ICs

High-resistivity (HR) substrates can potentially benefit radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits (IC) over using regular low-resistivity (LR) wafers. This paper discusses a comprehensive comparison study of substrate impacts on various RF passive devices and circuits designed in an exemplar foundry 22nm FDSOI process technology. Simulation predicts that adopting HR substrates of suitable resistivity, significant performance improvement in RF devices and circuits can be readily achieved, which also helps to reduce process complexity and fabrication costs. The results of this study provide valuable guidelines for both technology development and IC designs.