• Proceedings of the Korea Electromagnetic Engineering Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.163-167
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• 2003

In this paper, an air-suspension type RF MEMS inductor is fabricated, and an appropriate de-embedding scheme for 3-dimenstional MEMS structure is applied and verified with inductance calculation algorithm. With the presented de-embedding method, parasitics from contanct pads and feeding lines are effectively and accurately de-embedded using open and short calibration procedure, and only spiral and posts can be characterized as a high-Q inductor structure. The validity of the de-embedding method is verified by the comparison of the measured and calculated inductances of two 1.5 and 2.5 turn square spiral inductors. The open-short de-embedded inductance error is below 5% each case in comparison with the calculated value based on H.M. Greenhouse's algorithm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society Of Semiconductor Equipment Technology
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.160-164
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• 2005

In this paper, MEMS inductor was integrated on a 5GHz VCO using BCB as low-k dielectric layer for MEMS inductor. The VCO core circuit is realized by IBM SiGe process. We varied the spiral inductor's suspension height and posit ion on circuit, and studied their circuit interference effect on VCO performance. The VCO with inductor placed on BCB with More height and the VCO with inductor that was not positioned above active area showed better characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1049-1055
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• 2007

Lots of integration work has been done in order to miniaturize the devices for communication. To do this work, one of key work is to get miniaturized inductor with high Q factor for RF circuitry. However, it is not easy to get high Q inductor with silicon based substrate in the range of GHz. Although silicon is well known for its good electrical and mechanical characteristics, silicon has many losses due to small resistivity and high permittivity in the range of high frequency. MEMS technology is a key technology to fabricate miniaturized devices and LTCC is one of good substrate materials in the range of high frequency due to its characteristics of high resistivity and low permittivity. Therefore, we proposed and studied to fabricate and analyze the inductor on the LTCC substrate with MEMS fabrication technology as the one of solutions to overcome this problem. We succeeded in fabricating and characterizing the high Q inductor on the LTCC substrate and then compared and analyzed the results of this inductor with that on a silicon and a glass substrate. The inductor on the LTCC substrate has larger Q factor value and inductance value than that on a silicon and a glass substrate. The values of Q factor with the LTCC substrate are 12 at 3 GHz, 33 at 6 GHz, 51 at 7 GHz and the values of inductance is 1.8, 1.5, 0.6 nH in the range of 5 GHz on the silicon, glass, and LTCC substrate, respectively.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.182-188
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• 2001

A solenoid-type MEMS inductor with a quality factor over 10 at 2 GHz has been developed using an electroplating technique. The integrated spiral inductor has a low Q factor due to substrate loss and skin effects. It also occupies a large area compared to the solenoid-type inductor. The direction of flux of the solenoid-type inductor is parallel to the substrate, which can lower the substrate loss and other interference with integrated passive components. To estimate the characteristics of the proposed inductor over a high frequency range, the 3D FEM (Finite Element Method) simulation is used by using the HFSS at the Ansoft corporation. The electroplated solenoid-type inductor is fabricated on a glass substrate step by step by using photolithography and copper electroplating. The fabrication process to improve the quality factor of the inductor is also developed. The achieved inductance varies within a range from 0.5 nH to 2.8 nH, and the maximum Q factor is over 10.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.102-110
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• 2002

In this paper, we present the fabrication of tunable capacitors and 3-dimensional inductors. This work was related to fabricated 3-dimensional device for need of micro device in developing new intelligence age. This device was fabricated by electroplating used electroplating PR and high-vacuum evaporation of metal. Fabricated micro-inductor is consisted of air-bridge on electroplating rod and electroplated core. Micro-capacitor is consisted of thin metal membrane and electroplated core. Electroplating material is used Cu metal solvent. Air-gap between metal-layers function as almost perfect isolation layer. The most advantage of our micro-inductor and micro-capacitor compared to present device is a possibility that can fabricate on RF MEMS(microelectro-mechanical systems) application with high performance and various function. In this paper, we present the fabrication of tunable capacitors and 3-dimensional inductors. This work was related to fabricated 3-dimensional device for need of micro-device in developing new intelligence age. This device was fabricated by electroplating used electroplating PR and high-vacuum evaporation of metal. Fabricated micro-inductor is consisted of air-bridge on electroplating rod and electroplated core. Micro-capacitor is consisted of thin metal membrane and electroplated core. Electroplating material is used Cu metal solvent. Air-gap between metal-layers function as almost perfect isolation layer. The most advantage of our micro-inductor and micro-capacitor compared to present device is a possibility that can fabricate on RF MEMS application with high performance and various functions.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.987-990
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• 2003

This paper presents a cross-coupled RF VCO with high-Q MEMS-based spiral inductors. Since the use of high-Q inductors is critical to VCO design, MEMS-based spiral inductors with the Q-factor of nearly 22 are used for the RF VCO with an active cascode current source. The RF VCO circuits including spiral inductors have been designed and simulated in GaAs MMIC-MEMS process. The simulation results of the VCO circuits showed the phase noise of -180dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 500KHz. The RF VCO circuit simulatinon used 2mA DC current and 3.3V supply.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.11-14
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• 2003

The high Q(quality factor) suspended spiral inductors were fabricated on the silicon substrate by 3D surface micromachined process. The integration of 2.4GHz VCO has been performed by fabricating suspended spiral inductor of the top of CMOS VCO circuit. The phase noise of VCO integrated MEMS inductor is 93.5 dBc/Hz at 100kHz of offset frequency.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.300-306
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• 2004

This paper reports a novel tunable bandpass filter using two-state switched inductor with direct-contact MEMS switches for wireless LAN applications. In our filter configuration, the switched inductor is implemented to obtain more stable and much larger frequency tuning ratio compared with variable capacitor-based tunable filter. The proposed tunable filter was fabricated using a micromachining technology and electrical performances of the fabricated filter were measured. The filter consists of spiral inductors, MIM capacitors and direct-contact type MEMS switches, and its frequency tunability is achieved by changing the inductance that is induced by ON/OFF actuations of the MEMS switches. The actuation voltage of the MEMS switches was measured of 58 V, and they showed the insertion loss of 0.1 dB and isolation of 26.3 dB at 2 GHz, respectively. The measured center frequencies of the fabricated filter were 2.55 GHz and 5.1 GHz, respectively. The passband insertion loss and 3-dB bandwidth were 4.2 dB and 22.5 % at 2.55 GHz, and 5.2 dB and 23.5 % at 5.1 GHz, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.258-258
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• 2007

일반적인 CMOS공정으로는 높은 주파수 대역에서 높은 Q factor를 갖는 인덕터를 구현하는데 어렵고 이에 반해 RF ICs는 갈수록 high Q를 가지는 인덕터가 요구되고 있다. 이를 LTCC 기판 위에 인덕터를 구현했을 때 놓은 주파수 대역에서 성능을 알아보기 위해 모의 실험하였고, 실제로 구현을 하여 측정결과를 비교해 보았다. LTCC 기판위에 인덕터를 구현 하였을 때 실리콘, 유리 기판위에 인덕터를 구현하였을 때보다 더 높은 Q 값을 측정할 수 있었다. 5GHz 대역에서 실리콘, 유리, LTCC 기판에서 각각 12, 33, 51에 값을 확인할 수 있었다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2002.12a
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• pp.218-219
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• 2002

Recently, RF lumped-element devices are demanded strongly in application of hand-held mobile communication equipments. Many workers have been reported RF integrated inductor as well as air cores. In order to achieve the high Q value, they removed backside of substrate by micro machining process [1] and also another MEMS-like approach such as levitated structure [2]. These approaches are capable of suppressing the parasitic effects, but low reproducibility and high cost problems remain. (omitted)