• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.509-516
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• 2004

High-performance Si integrated passive process was developed using thick oxidation process and Cu-BCB process. This passive process leads to low-cost and high-quality RF module with a small form factor. The fabricated spiral inductor with 225 um inner diameter and 2.5 turns showed the inductance of 2.7 nH and the quality factor more than 30 in the frequency region of 1 ㎓ and above. Also WLCSP-type integrated passive devices were fabricated using the high-performance spiral inductors. The fabricated low pass filter had a parallel-resonance circuit inside the spiral inductor to suppress 2nd harmonics and showed about 0.5 ㏈ insertion loss at 2.45 ㎓. And also the high/low-pass balun had the insertion loss less than 0.5 ㏈ and the phase difference of 182 degrees at 2.45 ㎓.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.270-273
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• 2003

This paper presents a simple process to integrate thin-film inductors with a bottom NiFe magnetic core. NiFe thin films with a thickness of 2 to 3${\mu}m$ were deposited by sputtering. A polyimide buffer layer and shadow mask were used to relax the stress of the NiFe films. The fabricated double spiral thin-film inductor showed an inductance of 0.49${\mu}H$ and a Q factor of 4.8 at 8 MHz. The DC-DC converter with the monolithically integrated thin-film inductor showed comparable performances to those with sandwiched magnetic layers. We simplified the integration process by eliminating the planarization process for the top magnetic core. The efficiency of the DC-DC converter with the monolithic thin-film inductor was 72% when the input voltage and output voltage were 3.5 V and 6 V, respectively, at an operating frequency of 8 MHz.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.71-71
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• 2009

This paper describes a simple, on-chip CMOS compatible the thin-film inductor applied for the dc-dc converters. A fully CMOS-compatible thin-film inductor with a bottom NiFe core is integrated with the DC-DC converter circuit on the same chip. By eliminating ineffective top magnetic layer, very simple process integration was achieved. Fabricated monolithic thin film inductor showed fairly high inductance of 2.2 ${\mu}H$ and Q factor of 11.2 at 5MHz. When the DC-DC converter operated at $V_{in}=3.3V$ and 5MHz frequency, it showed output voltage $V_{out}=8.0V$, and corresponding power efficiency was 85%.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.270-273
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• 2003

The design, fabrication, and measured result of a 4.7 GHz differential VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) for a 5.2 GHz WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) applications is presented. The circuit is designed in a 0.35 mm technology employing three metal layers. The design is based on a fully integrated LC tank using spiral inductors. Measured tuning range is 10% of oscillation frequency with a control voltage from 0 to 3.0 V. Oscillation power of $\square$ 2.3 dBm at 4.63 GHz is measured with 21 mA DC current at 3V supply. The phase noise is $\square$ 104.17 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.284-290
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• 2004

In this paper, two types of thin nim bulk acoustic resonator(TFBAR) ladder filters are desisted and fabricated to analyze the effects of on-wafer inductor integration. To suppress the overmode phenomenon a 1 $\mu\textrm{m}$ thick air-gap is fabricated under the TFBAR and aluminum nitride is used for piezoelectric material, while platinum is employed for the top and bottom electrodes. The Tx filter in a duplexer, which usually has a steeper skirt characteristics o the right side of the passband, is designed with four serial and two shunt resonators, namely, a 4/2 stage. Similarly, the Rx filter is devised with a 3/4 stage to create a mirrored image of the Tx filter passband characteristics. Fabricated on-wafer spiral inductors with underpass reveals the Q factor of 5～9 at 2 ㎓. Inductor integrated filters have approximately 10 to 12 ㏈ out-of-band rejection improvement, when compared to the original filters.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.65-72
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• 2003

To achieve cost and size reductions, we developed a low cost manufacturing technology for RF substrates and a high performance passive process technology for RF integrated passive devices (IPDs). The fabricated substrate is a conventional 6" Si wafer with a 25${\mu}m$ thick $SiO_2$ surface. This substrate showed a very good insertion loss of 0.03 dB/mm at 4 GHz, including the conductive metal loss, with a 50 ${\Omega}$ coplanar transmission line (W=50${\mu}m$, G=20${\mu}m$). Using benzo cyclo butene (BCB) interlayers and a 10 ${\mu}m$ Cu plating process, we made high Q rectangular and circular spiral inductors on Si that had record maximum quality factors of more than 100. The fabricated inductor library showed a maximum quality factor range of 30-120, depending on geometrical parameters and inductance values of 0.35-35 nH. We also fabricated small RF IPDs on a thick oxide Si substrate for use in handheld phone applications, such as antenna switch modules or front end modules, and high-speed wireless LAN applications. The chip sizes of the wafer-level-packaged RF IPDs and wire-bondable RF IPDs were 1.0-1.5$mm^2$ and 0.8-1.0$mm^2$, respectively. They showed very good insertion loss and RF performances. These substrate and passive process technologies will be widely utilized in hand-held RF modules and systems requiring low cost solutions and strict volumetric efficiencies.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.387-390
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• 1998

In this paper, HBT's with lower phase noise and passive elements, such as resistors, capacitors and inductors, for resonance and impedance matching networks are designed, fabricated, tested, and carefully analysed, respectively, and then, they are integrated for the design and fabrication of functional X-band oscillators with lower phase noise. Epi-wafers for HBT's with the structure of graded $Al_{x}$G $a_{1-x}$ As emitter and C-doped base layer of 700.angs. thick were used to specially emphasize the improvement of $f_{T}$ and $f_{max}$, and the lowering of phase noise, in design aspects. At the test frequencies of 12GHz, capacitances of MIM capacitors, spiral inductor, and resistances are 0.5~10pF, 0.4~11.06nH, and 20~1,380.ohm., respectively. The emitter size of HBY's for the X-band MMIC oscillators is 3*10u $m^{2}$, and find chip size is 0.9*0.9m $m^{2}$..EX>.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.713-721
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• 2004

This paper presents a high Performance LNA based on InGaP/GaAs HBT for 5.4㎓ WAM band applications. During the past days, InGaP/GaAs HBT has been being used for mainly high power amplifiers, but InCaP/GaAs is recognized as a suitable device for RF single chip. At this point, the research about a high performance LNA based on InGaP/GaAs HBT must be preceded, and in this paper, a excellent linearity and noise characteristics LNA based on InGaP/GaAs HBT is desisted and fabricated. The LNA is integrated in new of 0.9${\times}$0.9$\textrm{mm}^2$ single chip with high Q spiral inductors and MIM capacitors. The proposed LNA is biased at current point for optimum noise figure and gain characteristics, futhermore, excellent linearity is achieved. The proposed LNA shows 13㏈ gain, 2.1㏈ noise figure, and excellent linearity in terms of IIP3 of 5.5㏈m.