The upcoming Fifth Generation (5G) network has promoted researches in integrated circuit designs and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Since the 5G technologies operate mainly in the millimetre wave (mm-wave) band, developing electronic components which are compatible with this frequency range is therefore necessary. This paper presents the design of four novel inductors, applied particularly in Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) which operate at 60 GHz to overcome the limitations of the particular Process Design Kit (PDK) in which the provided scalable inductors are characterised at a maximum frequency of 30 GHz. The design is based on Silterra’s 0.13 μm radio frequency complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (RF CMOS) process technology. The inductors use Ultra-Thick Metal (UTM) with a copper thickness of 3.3 μm. A mixture of analytical and parametric analyses is utilised in designing the four spiral inductors which can be implemented in the PDK used by the aforementioned LNA. The inductances and Q-factors across 1 GHz to 150 GHz were plotted and analysed. The results show that the four designs exhibit very good performance at 60 GHz with minimal tolerances. This paper serves as a proof-of-concept for a methodology on custom inductor design and simulations with existing PDK limitations.
