Characteristic Variation of 3-D Solenoid Embedded Inductors for Wireless Communication Systems

The characteristic variation of 3-dimensional (3-D) solenoid-type embedded inductors is investigated. Four different structures of a 3-D inductor are fabricated by using a low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) process, and their s-parameters are measured between 50 MHz and 5 GHz. The circuit model parameters of each building block are optimized and extracted using the partial element equivalent circuit method and an HSPICE circuit simulator. Based on the model parameters, the characteristics of the test structures such as self-resonant frequency, inductance, and quality (Q) factor are analyzed, and predictive modeling is applied to the structures composed of a combination of the modeled building blocks. In addition, characteristic variations of the 3-D inductors with different structures using extracted building blocks are also investigated. This approach can provide a characteristic estimation of 3-D solenoid embedded inductors for structural variations.