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Modeling of the impact of the substrate noise generated by a digital modem on an LC-VCO and the application of isolation techniques on a lightly-doped substrate This publication appears in: IEEE Journal of Solid - State Circuits Authors: C. Soens, G. Van Der Plas, P. Wambacq, S. Donnay, M. Kuijk and Y. Rolain Volume: 41 Issue: IEEE Journal Pages: 2040-2051 Publication Date: Sep. 2006
Abstract: Substrate noise generated by the digital circuits on a mixed-signal IC can severely disturb the analog and RF circuits sharing the same substrate. Simulations at the circuit level of the substrate noise coupling in large systems-on-chip (SoCs) do not provide the.necessary understanding in the problem. Analysis at a higher level of abstraction gives much more insight in the coupling mechanisms. This paper presents a physical model to estimate and understand the substrate noise generation by a digital modem, the propagation of this noise and the resulting performance degradation of LC tank VCOs. The proposed linearized model is fast to derive and to evaluate, while remaining accurate. It is validated with measurements on two test structures: a reference design and a design with a p(+)/n-well (digital) guard ring. Both structures contain a functional 40k gate digital modem and a 0.18 mu m 3.5 GHz CMOS LC-VCO on a lightly-doped substrate. In both cases, the model accurately predicts the level of the spurious components appearin 9 at the VCO output due to the digital switching activity. The error remains smaller than 3 dB. Finally, we demonstrate how the proposed model enables a systematic and controlled isolation strategy to suppress substrate noise coupling problems. As an example, the model is used to determine suitable dimensions for a digital guard ring
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