Stacked-Spiral RF Inductor With Vertical Nano-Powder Magnetic Core in CMOS

Author

Zhan, Jing ; Yang, Chen ; Wang, Xin ; Zhang, Fan ; Ren, Tian-Ling ; Wang, Albert ; Yang, Yi ; Liu, Li-Tian ; Yang, Li-Wu ; Yue, Zhen-Xing

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microelectron., Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China

Volume

22

Issue

1

fYear

2012

Firstpage

29

Lastpage

31

Abstract

This letter reports a novel concept of vertical stacked-spiral RF inductor with integrated nano-powder-magnetic-core in standard CMOS. A proof-of-concept design in a foundry 0.18 6-metal CMOS using a new post-CMOS backend process (CMOS+) is depicted. Measurement shows significant improvement in inductance of 35% and quality factor of 41% up to multi-GHz in prototype. An -density of 420 at 1.2 GHz is achieved. Limiting factors for the relatively low factor in the prototypes and improvement method are discussed.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; Q-factor; inductors; magnetic cores; nanoparticles; foundry; inductance; integrated nano-powder-magnetic-core; post-CMOS backend process; proof-of-concept design; quality factor; standard CMOS; vertical nano-powder magnetic core; vertical stacked-spiral RF inductor; CMOS integrated circuits; Ferrites; Inductors; Magnetic cores; Powders; Radio frequency; System-on-a-chip; CMOS+; nano powder; vertical magnetic core;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1531-1309

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LMWC.2011.2176474

Filename

6107599