Intel Corporation

Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Intel IP Corporation

Lillian G Lent

Chi-Taou Robert Tsai

Curtiss D Roberts

Cindy Muir

Mark Alan Kirschenmann

Rizwan Ahmed

Kurt Hausmann

An inductor has a conductor layer formed by multiple concentric co-planar turns of a first metal layer (e.g., ultra-thick metal (UTM)) adapted to receive current at a frequency of at least one gigahertz. The multiple turns of the first metal layer proceed from an innermost turn to an outermost turn, and a stacking layer of a second metal is provided over each of the first metal layer turns except at least the innermost turn, thereby optimizing the Q of the inductor.

Stacked metal inductor

An inductor has a conductor layer formed by multiple concentric co-planar turns of ultra-thick metal (UTM) adapted to receive current at a frequency of at least one gigahertz. The multiple turns of UTM proceed from an innermost turn to an outermost turn, and aluminum stacking is provided over all of the UTM turns except at least the innermost turn, thereby optimizing the Q of the inductor.

An integrated circuit (IC) comprises a plurality of metal layers; a seal ring arranged around a perimeter of the IC and included in at least a portion of the plurality of metal layers; a first coil included in the IC; and a bypass conductor included in at least one metal layer of the plurality of metal layers and having at least a first end and a second end electrically coupled to the seal ring to form a bypass ring around the first coil.

Bypass ring to improve noise isolation of coils and inductors

An apparatus includes a first differential transmission line and a second differential transmission line. The second differential transmission line is parallel to the first differential transmission line through an overlap region. The first differential transmission line includes a first line and a second line. The first differential transmission line includes N crossovers along the first differential transmission line through the overlap region at which the first line and the second line switch lanes with each other. N is equal to 1+INT {L/(&#x3bb;/C)}, where L is a length of the overlap region, &#x3bb; is a wavelength of a differential signal carried by the first or second differential transmission line, C is a constant, and INT {L/(&#x3bb;/C)} is {L/(&#x3bb;/C)} rounded down to the nearest integer.

Isolating differential transmission lines

A tunable wideband distribution circuit for transmitting a wireless signal over a transmission line is disclosed. The tunable wideband distribution circuit may include a programmable gain buffer, wherein the gain of the programmable gain buffer is based at least in part on a frequency of the wireless signal. The tunable wideband distribution circuit may also include a tuning element configured to modify an effective impedance of the transmission line based at least on the frequency of the wireless signal, wherein the tuning element is electrically coupled to the transmission line.

Tunable wideband distribution circuit

An integrated transmit circuit includes a voltage controlled oscillator () for generating an input frequency signal (e.g., VCO) that is provided to a divide by two quadrature generator circuit () which generates therefrom in-phase and quadrature clocking signals (I, IB, Q, QB) that are applied to control a plurality of transmission gates (-) configured in a matched switching topology () so as to selectively pass pulses from the input frequency signal, thereby generating interleaved LO pulses (&#xd8;, &#xd8;, . . . &#xd8;, &#xd8;). By applying the interleaved LO pulses to control the transmission gates (, and) in the upmixer (), the +I, &#x2212;I, +Q, &#x2212;Q input signals are interleaved over a plurality of phases of a carrier period to produce differential outputs ().

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Chandler, AZ, United States of America

Lillian G Lent