Three-dimensional quasi-solenoidal microcoils with an air core on the LTCC substrate

Production of microcoils suited for radio-frequency applications faces many challenges in terms of the cost-efficiency, reproducibility and reliability. A novel microcoil design employing a multilayered fabrication of low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) is presented in this work. Sub-millimeter dimensions, cylindrical shape, low resistance, high self-resonant frequency of the microcoil are crucial for their utilization in RF circuits. The microcoils with air core and quasi-solenoidal shape consist of twelve layers of LTCC tapes. After the fabrication, test samples with different sizes were characterized with a vector network analyzer, providing measurement results in terms of inductance, resistance, Q-factor and self-resonant frequency.