Magnetic-Particle-Composite-Medium-Filled Stacked-Spiral Inductors for Radio-Frequency CMOS Applications
ZHAN Jing1,2**, CAI Hua-Lin1, CHEN Xiao1, WANG Xin3, FANG Qiang3, YANG Yi1**, REN Tian-Ling1**, LIU Li-Tian1, LI Xin-Xin2, WANG Albert3, YANG Chen2
1Institute of Microelectronics, and Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 2Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Shanghai 200050 3Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Abstract：Magnetic-particle-composite-medium-filled stacked-spiral inductors for rf complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) applications in GHz are demonstrated. The new inductor features a nearly closed magnetic circuit loop, an optimized high-permeability and low-loss sub-1 μm magnetic particles' composite core, and a developed 0.18-μm CMOS-compatible device fabrication process. An equivalent circuit model with structural amplifying factors is proposed and modeled. The prototype of the 6-level stacked inductor with Co2Z magnetic-particles-composite-medium filling increases the inductance L by 50%, and quality factor Q by 37% at frequencies as high as 1 GHz, with high inductance density as 825 nH/mm2 and a reduced size area by 80% compared to the planar spiral inductor.
2013, Vol. 30 
