Integrated X-Band Inductor with a Nanoferrite Film Core

Ranajit Sai, Suresh D. Kulkarni, Masahiro Yamaguchi, Navakanta Bhat, S. A. Shivashankar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The performance of an on-chip X-band (8-12 GHz) inductor, integrated with a partially-inverted zinc ferrite (piZF) film, is presented. The ferrite-core inductor is realized in three steps - first, fabrication of an uncoated spiral inductor via a 130 nm Si-CMOS process in a foundry, followed by passivation removal around the coil by reactive ion etching (RIE), and finally, deposition of piZF directly on the coil by microwave-assisted solution-based processing. The resulting piZF film covers the inductor coil conformally and exhibits high saturation magnetization (MS=130 emu/cm3 and very low coercivity (HC < 15 Oe) at room temperature. The ferromagnetic resonance frequency (fFMR) of piZF was determined by the coplanar-waveguide ferromagnetic-resonance technique to be ∼sim30 GHz, well above the frequency of targeted X-band applications. The inductance-density and Q-factor of the piZF-coated inductor are enhanced by 13% and 25% to 450 nH/mm2 and 5.8, respectively, at 10 GHz. This is the first report of an on-chip ferrite-core RF inductor operating above 6 GHz.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7826968
JournalIEEE Magnetics Letters
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • high-frequency applications
  • inductors
  • Microwave magnetics
  • soft magnetic materials

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