• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.145-151
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• 2007

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 $0.86{\times}0.46{\times}0.45m^3$, $1.5{\times}1.0{\times}0.7m^3$, $2.1{\times}1.5{\times}1.0m^3$, and $2.4{\times}2.0{\times}1.4m^3$ and copper (Cu) wire with $27{\sim}40{\mu}m$ diameter was used as the coils. High frequency characteristics of the inductance, quality factor, and impedance of developed inductors 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 7 have the inductance of 13 to 100nH and exhibit the self-resonant frequency (SRF) of 6.4 to 1.1GHz. The SRF of inductors decreases with increasing the inductance and the inductors have the quality factor of 50 to 80 in the frequency range of 300MHz to 1.3GHz. In this study, small-size solenoid-type RF chip inductors with high inductance and high quality factor were fabricated successfully.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2002

This paper presents high performance MEMS passives using fully CMOS compatible, monolithically integrable 3-D RF MEMS processes for RF and microwave applications. The 3-D RF MEMS technology has been developed and investigated as a viable technological option, which can break the limit of the conventional IC technology. We have demonstrated the versatility of the technology by fabricating various 3-D thick-metal microstructures for RF and microwave applications, such as spiral/solenoid inductors, transformers, and transmission lines, with a vertical dimension of up to $100{\;}\mu\textrm{m}$. To the best of our knowledge, we report that we are the first to construct a fully integrated VCO with MEMS inductors, which has achieved a low phase noise of -124 dBc/Hz at 300 kHz offset from a center frequency of 1 GHz.