Radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal integrated circuits employ capacitor elements for decoupling, filtering and oscillating. Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor structure has been used as a capacitor in analog, mixed-signal and RF devices, due to an advantage that metal provides depletion-free, high-conductance electrodes suitable for high-speed applications at low cost. The MIM capacitor structure has an advantage of flexibility in inserting it between two intermediate metal levels. For increasingly complex mixed-signal and RF applications, the MIM capacitor area is limited by chip size parameters.
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