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High Q, 3D Inductors for RF-IC Microwave Device Term Project High Q, 3D Inductors for RF-IC Bioelectonic Systems Lab. Choongjae Lee ( 2001-21538) eatspace@helios.snu.ac.kr

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Introduction integrated formreducesize cost RF-IC requires high performance passive components as an integrated form to reduce the total system size and assembly cost. High performance RF inductors are the key components for implementing critical building blocks such as low noise RF VCOs, low loss impedance matching networks, passive filters, and inductive loads for power amplifiers. High Q inductors are critical for lowering power dissipation, and improving the performance of personal RF communication devices such as cellular phones.

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Inductor Q Factor Definition of Q Factor f: Operating freq. R m (f): Real Parts of the inductor impedance X m (f): Imaginary parts of the inductor Impedance Degradation of Q Losses from coil Resistance - Frequency dependent ( skin depth effects) thick metallization Self resonance of the coil parameter control (ex. turn number, turn to turn spacing, metal width) Losses from eddy currents circulation below the spiral in the silicon substrate (proximity effects)

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Techniques for High Q Thick metallization, multilayer metallization Patterned ground shield below the inductor Thick or low dielectric layer to separate the spiral from the substrate Using high resistivity (>4k) silicon or ceramic, glass as the substrate Etching away the underlying substrate suspended inductor Fabrication a suspended inductor 3D on chip inductor 3D on chip inductor minimize the device capacitive coupling to the substrate and eddy current loss

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Ex1) Suspended Spiral Inductor-[1] Using MEMS technology. The inductor is sustained with the T-shaped pillars.

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Continued Separation between the substrate and the inductor Great improvements in Q-Factor 37 Q max is 37 for the L of 4.2nH with a suspended height of 60

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Idea) 3D Solenoid Design In comparison to planar spiral inductors, 3D solenoid inductors have less substrate parasitic capacitance since only partial parts of the coil, the bottom conductors, are facing or touching the substrate 3D solenoid inductors have significantly less eddy current induced substrate loss than planar spiral inductors since the core center is in the direction parallel to the substrate Core-loss can be minimized using low loss-tangent core such as alumina. For post IC integration approach processing temperature must not exceed approximately 450

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Ex2) 3D on Chip Inductor[2] 3D minimize the device capacitive coupling to the substrate and eddy current loss minimize coil area Thick copper reduce the series resistance Core = alumina (negligible loss tangent at high freq.)

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Continued 1. Wafer passivation with 10 Low Temp. Oxide 2. Cu(3000 )/Ti(500 ) Sputtering 3. 8 thick electroplated resist and patterning 4. To prevent oxidation, Cu is passivated with Au/Ni 5. The PR and Cu/Ti seed layer removing 6. Core forming from alumina sheet direct write laser lithography 7. Side and top cu patterning with direct write laser lithography tool

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Continued Standard Si sub (10cm) Amenable to monolithic integration in a standard IC process due to its low thermal budget 30 Q is 30 for the L of 4.8nH at 1GHz

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Ex3) 3D solenoid inductor[3] Utilizing deformation of a sacrificial thick polymer and conformal photoresist electrodeposition techniques.

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Continued (a) Substrate Insulation, sputtering of electroplating base (2000 Cu/1000 Ti) (b) 15 thick SU-8 resist coating (polymeric mold for bottom conductor electrodeposition), Metal electroplating (c) Deposition a polymeric mesa, SJR5740 (d) 120 Hard cure for 6hours to deform bell-shaped profile, sputtering of electroplating base, PEPR2400 photoresist is applied using electrodeposition (e) Ni-Cu electroplating through the PEPR2400 mold to form top conductor (f) Sacrificial layers and electroplating base removing

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Ex4) Surface Micromachined Solenoid Inductor[4] Using an ordinary IC process having several metal layers 20 turn, all-copper solenoid inductor

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Continued On-Si with a 15 thick insulating layer Q = 16.7 at 2.4GHz with L of 2.67nH 25.1 On-glass Q = 25.1 at 8.4GHz with L of 2.3nH The inferior Q factor performance of the on-Si inductor originates from the relatively large increase in the parasitic capacitance to the substrate.

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Idea) Toroidal Geometry Higher Q compared to planar coils and lower interference with surrounding circuits Most of the electromagnetic field is concentrated inside the torus. Magnetic flux away from ground planes and semiconducting substrates Little eddy current is induced. Toroidal geometry have optimal electromagnetic characteristics

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Toroidal Inductor [5] p=100 t=8.3 w=70 r=440 a=170 h s =500 h ox =0.5 N=15

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Continued Post-processing technology for monolithically ICs Fabrication without requiring changes to the silicon process Surface micromachining technology Confining the magnetic fields Optimize the tradeoff between flux linkage and turn-to-turn parasitic capacitance For the same inductance, toroidal structures consume significantly less area A concentrated magnetic field along the core results in less noise coupling and electromagnetic interference with the neighboring components

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Continued Si sub 20cm, 500 thickness (a) Input output lead lines patterning (b) Silver seed layer for electroplating (c) Thick PR deposition (d) anchoring pints patterning (e) gold gold/palladium layer deposition (f) suspended metal bridge patterning (g) PR removing and metal thickening by electroplating copper and gold

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Continued Micromachined implementation of the toroidal inductor Low resistivity silicon wafer Q Factor: 22 (At 1.5GHz) L=2.45nH selfresonant freq. > 10GHz 11 Turns

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Toroidal Inductor [6] D out =Outer diameter of the coil skin =Skin depth (f) = current crowding effect coefficient = resistivity, S coil = seperation between coils 0 =Vacuum permeability, r =relative permeability, N=Number of turns, r coil =radius of the coil r torus =radius of the torus cross section

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Continued Freq.=0.9GHz D out =1mm, S coil =15 Metal Thickness=8 L=5nH Freq.=1GHz 2r torus /D out =0.2 Gold Thickness=8 L=5nH Copper Gold

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Continued Using polymer replication processes accuracy and small features available + production economy

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Continued 50 6.0nH Inductance, Q Factor 50 (freq.: 3GHz) Metal Thickness = 4 , 15 turns This implementation is not intended for direct integration with RF ICs

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Summary RFIC requires high performance on chip inductor for small size, low cost, high performance. For high Q inductor, we must reduce ohmic loss and induced current. To reduce the induced current, suspended spiral inductor, 3D solenoid inductor and 3D toroidal inductor were suggested. With the increase of the suspended heights, the maximum Q factor increases gradually. 3D inductors have significantly less eddy current induced substrate loss since the core center is in the direction parallel to the substrate. 3D inductors have less substrate parasitic capacitance since only partial parts of the coil are facing or touching the substrate. In toroidal inductor design, most of the electromagnetic field is concentrated inside the torus. Thus higher Q and lower interference with surrounding circuits can be achieved.

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References [1] Xi-ning Wang, Fabrication and Performance of a novel suspended RF spiral inductor IEEE Tran. On Electron Devices, Vol. 51, No. 5, May. 2004. [2] D. J. Young, Monolithic high-performance three- dimensional coil inductors for wireless communication applications Int. EDM 97, 1997, pp 67-70 [3] N.Chomnawang, On-chip 3D air core micro-inductor for high-frequency applications using deformation of sacrificial polymer Proc. SPIE, Vol. 4334, pp. 54-62, 2001 [4] J.B.Yoon, Surface micromachined solenoid on-Si and on-glass inductors for RF applications IEEE Electron Device Lett., Vol. 20, pp 487-489, Sep. 1999. [5] Wai Y. Liu, Toroidal inductors for radio-frequency Integrated Circuits IEEE Tran. On Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 52, No2, Feb. 2004. [6] Vladimir Ermolov, Microreplicated RF toroidal inductor IEEE Tran. On Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 52, No. 1, Jan. 2004.