• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제1권3호
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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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• 제13권3호
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• pp.198-206
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• 2013

This paper presents a wide band, fine-resolution digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) with an on-chip 3-D solenoid inductor using the 0.13 ${\mu}m$ digital CMOS process. The on-chip solenoid inductor is vertically constructed by using Metal and Via layers with a horizontal scalability. Compared to a spiral inductor, it has the advantage of occupying a small area and this is due to its 3-D structure. To control the frequency of the DCO, active capacitor and active inductor are tuned digitally. To cover the wide tuning range, a three-step coarse tuning scheme is used. In addition, the DCO gain needs to be calibrated digitally to compensate for gain variations. The DCO with solenoid inductor is fabricated in 0.13 ${\mu}m$ process and the die area of the solenoid inductor is 0.013 $mm^2$. The DCO tuning range is about 54 % at 4.1 GHz, and the power consumption is 6.6 mW from a 1.2 V supply voltage. An effective frequency resolution is 0.14 kHz. The measured phase noise of the DCO output at 5.195 GHz is -110.61 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.

• 마이크로전자및패키징학회지
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.5-8
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• 2009

In this paper, a high-quality low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) solenoid inductor using a solder ball and an air cavity on a silicon wafer for three-dimensional (3-D) system-in-package (SiP) is proposed. The LTCC multi-layer solenoid inductor is attached using Ag paste and solder ball on a silicon wafer with the air cavity structure. The air cavity is formed on a silicon wafer through an anisotropic wet-etching technology and is able to isolate the LTCC dielectric loss which is equivalent to a low k material effect. The electrical coupling between the metal layer and the LTCC dielectric layer is decreased by adopting the air cavity. The LTCC solenoid inductor using the solder ball and the air cavity on silicon wafer has an improved Q factor and self-resonant frequency (SRF) by reducing the LTCC dielectric resistance and parasitic capacitance. Also, 3-D device stacking technologies provide an effective path to the miniaturization of electronic systems.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제19권8호
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• pp.780-784
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• 2006

We present high aspect ratio air-core solenoid inductors with $100{\mu}m\;and\;200{\mu}m$ tall via structures on Pyrex wafer. The effect of various parameters such as different number of turns, via heights, pitch distance between turns on inductor's radio frequency (RF) characteristics have been studied. The highest Q factor we obtained from various solenoid inductors is 72.8 at 9.7 GHz, which was produced by a 3-turn inductor.

• 대한전기학회논문지:전기물성ㆍ응용부문C
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• 제55권7호
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• pp.339-343
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• 2006

In this study, the variations of the important characteristics of solenoid-type RF chip inductors utilizing a low-loss A1203 core material on inductor dimensions were investigated systematically. Four dimensions of the chip inductors fabricated in this work were $1.0\times0.5\times0.5mm^3,\;1.5\times1.0\times0.7mm^3,\;2.1\times1.5\times1.0mm^3,\;and\;2.4\times2.0\times1.4mm^3$ and copper (Cu) wire with $40{\mu}m$ diameter was used as the coils. High frequency characteristics of the inductance, quality factor, and impedance of developed inductors as a function of inductor dimensions were measured using an RF Impedance/Material Analyzer (HP4291B with HP16193A test fixture). It was observed that the developed inductors with the number of turns of 6 have the inductance (L) of 12 to 82 nH and exhibit the self-resonant frequency (SRE) of 3.6 to 1.2 GHz. The SRF of inductors decreases with increasing the inductor size while the L increases with the inductor size. The smallest inductors of $1.0\times0.5\times0.5mm^3$ exhibited the L of 12 nH, SRF of 3.6 GHz, and the quality factor of 67 near the frequency of 1.1 GHz. The calculated data predicted the high-frequency data of the L, and Q of the developed inductors well.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.295-301
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• 2002

In this paper, solenoid-type 3-D passives (inductors and transformers) have been designed, fabricated, and characterized by using electroplating techniques, wire bonding techniques, multi-layer thick photoresist, and low temperature processes which are compatible with semiconductor circuitry fabrication. Two different fabrication approaches are performed to develop the solenoid-type 3-D passives and relationship of performance characteristics and geometry is also deeply investigated such as windings, cross-sectional area of core, spacing between windings, and turn ratio. Fully integrated inductor has a quality factor of 31 at 6 GHz, an inductance of 2.7 nH, and a self resonant frequency of 15.8 GHz. Bonded wire inductor has a quality factor of 120, an inductance of 20 nH, and a self resonant frequency of 8 GHz. Integrated transformers with turn ratios of 1:1 and n:l have the minimum insertion loss of about 0.6 dB and the wide bandwidth of a few GHz.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.347-354
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• 2006

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.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제13권10호
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• pp.840-846
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• 2000

In this work, small-size, high-performance solenoid-type RF chip inductors utilizing a low-loss Al$_2$O$_3$core material were investigated. The size of the chip inductors fabricated in this work were 15$\times$10$\times$0.7㎣, 2.1$\times$1.5$\times$10㎣, and 2.4$\times$2.0$\times$1.4㎣ and copper (Cu) wire with 40 ㎛ diameter was used as the coils. High frequency characteristics of the inductance, quality factor, and impedance of developed inductors were measured suing an RF Impedance/Material Analyzer (HP4291B with HP16193A test fixture). It was observed that the developed inductors with the number of turns of 7 have the inductance of 33 to 100nH and exhibit the self-resonant frequency (SRF) of .26 to 1.1 GHz. The SRF of inductors decreases with increasing the inductance and the inductors have the quality factor of 60 to 80 in the frequency range of 300 MHz to 1.1 GHz. In this study, small-size solenoid-type RF chip inductors with high inductance and high quality factor were fabricated successfully. It is suggested that the thin film-type inductor is necessary to fabricate the smaller size inductors at the expence of inductance and quality factor values.

• 대한전기학회논문지:전기물성ㆍ응용부문C
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.283-288
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• 2000

In this work, small-size, high-performance simple solenoid-type RF chip inductors utilizing an Al2O3 core material were investigated. Copper (Cu) wire with $40\mum$ diameter was used as the coils and the size of the chip inductor fabricated in this work was $2.1mm\times1.5mm\times1.0mm$. The external current source was applied after bonding Cu coil leads to gold pads electro-plated on each end of backsides of a core material. High frequency characteristics of the inductance (L), quality factor (Q), and impedance (Z) of developed inductors were measured using an RF Impedance/Material Analyzer (HP4291B with HP16193A test fixture). This HP4291B was also used to obtain the equivalent circuit and its circuit parameters of the chip inductors. This HP4291B was also used to obtain the equivalent circuit and its circuit parameters of the chip inductors. The developed inductors have the self-resonant frequency (SRF) of 1.1 to 3.1 GHz and exhibit L of 22 to 150 nH. The L of the inductors decreases with increasing the SRF. The Z of the inductors has the maximum value at the SRF and the inductors have the quality factor of 70 to 97 in the frequency range of 500 MHz to 1.5 GHz.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.340-347
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• 2004

Ultra-small size, high-performance, solenoid-type RF chip inductors utilizing low-loss A1$_2$O$_3$ core materials were investigated. The dimensions of the RF chip inductors fabricated were 1.0mm${\times}$0.5mm${\times}$0.5mm and copper coils were used. The materials (96％ A1$_2$O$_3$) and shape (I-type) of the core, the diameters (40${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) and position (middle) of the coil, and the lengths (0.35mm) of solenoid were determined by a high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) to maximize the performance of the inductors. The high-frequency characteristics of the inductance (L) and quality-factor (Q) of the developed inductors were measured using a RF impedance/material analyzer (E4991A with E16197A test fixture). The developed inductors exhibit an inductance of 11 to 11.3nH and a qualify factor of 22.3 to 65.7 over the frequency ranges of 250 MHz to 1.7 GHz, and show results comparable to those measured for the inductors prepared by Coilcraft$^{TM}$. The simulated data described the high-frequency data of the L and Q of the fabricated inductors well.