• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.221-224
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• 2004

This paper has researched on-chip spiral inductor in digital CMOS technology by modeling physical structure based on foundry parameter. To show the possibility of its application to RF design, we designed dual band RF front-end receiver. The simulated receiver have gain of 23/23.5 dB and noise figure of 2.8/3.36 dB at 2.45/5.25 GHz, respectively. It occupies $16mm^2$ in $0.25{\mu}m$ CMOS with 5 metal layer.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.17-23
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• 2003

In this study, microscale, high-performance, solenoid-type RF chip inductors were investigated. The size of the RF chip inductors fabricated in this work was 1.0${\times}$0.5${\times}$0.5㎣. The materials (96% Al2O3) and shape (I-type) of the core were determined by a Maxwell three-dimensional field simulator to maximize the performance of the inductors. The copper (Cu) wire with 40${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ diameter was used as the coils. High frequency characteristics of the inductance (L), quality-factor (Q), and capacitance (C) of developed inductors were measured using an RF Impedance/Material Analyzer (HP4291B with HP16193A test fixture). The inductors developed have inductances of 11 to 39 nH and quality factors of 28 to 50 over the frequency ranges of 250MHz to 1 GHz, and show results comparable to those measured for the inductors prepared by CoilCraf $t^{Tm}$ that is one of the best chip inductor company in the world. The simulated data predicted the high-frequency data of the L, Q, and C of the inductors developed well.l.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2000.07c
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• pp.1776-1778
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• 2000

The demands placed on portable wireless communication equipment include low cost, low supply voltage, low power, dissipation, low noise, high frequency of operation, and low distortion. These design requirements cannot be met satisfactorily in many cases without the use of RF inductors. However, implementing the inductor on-chip has been regarded as an impractical task because of excessive substrate capacitance and substantial resistive losses due to metallization and the conductive silicon substrate. Hence, there is a great incentive to design, optimize, and model spiral inductors on Si substrate. So, we analyzed a chip inductors using electromagnetic analysis and established a set of design rules for rectangular spiral inductors.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.34-42
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• 2000

Recently, there is a growing need to develope small-size RF chip inductors operating to GHz to realize high-performance, micro-fabricated wireless communication products. For the development of high-performance RF chip inductors, however, the ferrite-based chip inductors can not be used above 300MHz due to the limitation of the permeability of this material. In this work, small-size, high-performance RF chip inductors utilizing amorphous $Al_2O_3$ core material were investigated. Copper (Cu) with 40${\mu}m$ diameter was used as the coils and the chip inductor size fabricated in this work is $2.1mm{\times}1.5mm{\times}1.0mm$. The external current source was applied after bonding Cu coil leads to gold pads electro-plated on the bottom edges of a core material. The composition of core materials was measured using a EDX. High frequency characteristics of the inductance (L), quality factor (Q), and impedance (Z) of developed inductors were measured using an RF Impedance/Material Analyzer (HP4291B with HP16193A test fixture). The developed inductors have the self-resonant frequency (SRF) of 1 to 3.5 GHz and exhibit L of 22 to 150 nH. The L of the inductors decreases with increasing the SRF. The Z of the inductors has the maximum value at the SRF and the inductors have the quality factor of 70 to 97 in the frequency range of 500 MHz to 1.5 GHz.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.149-167
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• 2004

Passive components are indispensable in the design and development of microchips for high-frequency applications. Inductors in particular are used frequently in radio frequency (RF) IC's such as low-noise amplifiers and oscillators. This paper gives a broad overview on the on-chip spiral inductors. The design concept and modeling approach of the typical square-shaped spiral inductor are first addressed. This is followed by the discussions of advanced structures for the enhancement of inductor performance. Research works reported in the literature are summarized to aid the understanding of the recent development of such devices.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.11
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• pp.501-507
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• 2003

In this study, microscale, high-performance, solenoid-type RF chip inductors were investigated. The size of the RF chip inductors fabricated in this work was 1.0${\times}$0.5${\times}$0.5㎣. 96% $Al_2$ $O_3$and I-type were used as the material and shape of the core, respectively. The copper (Cu) wire with 6 turns was employed as the coils. The diameter (40${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) and position (middle) of the coil and the length (0.35mm) of solenoid were determined by a high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) to maximize the performance of the inductors. High frequency characteristics of the inductance (L) and quality-factor (Q) of developed inductors were measured using an RF Impedance/Material Analyzer (HP4291B with HP16193A test fixture). The inductors developed have inductances of 10.8nH and quality factors of 25.2 to 50 over the frequency ranges of 250MHz to l GHz, and show results comparable to those measured for the inductors prepared by CoilCraf $t^{Tm}$ . The simulated data predicted the high-frequency data of the L and Q of the inductors developed well.l.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.826-831
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• 2009

In this paper, a high power RF amplifier module using AlN substrate of high thermal conductivity has been proposed. This RF amplifier module has the advantage of compact size and effective heat dissipation for the packaging of high power chip. To fabricate the thru-hole and scribing line on AlN substrate, the key parameters of $CO_2$ laser were experimented. And then, microstrip lines and spiral planar inductors were fabricated on an AlN substrate using the thin-film process. The fabricated microstrip lines on the AlN substrate has an attenuation value of 0.1 dB/mm up to 10 GHz. The fabricated spiral planar inductor has a high quality factor, a maximum of about 62 at 1 GHz for a 5.65 nH inductor. Packaging of a RF power amplifier was implemented on an AlN substrate with thru-hole. From the measured results, the gain is 24 dB from 13 to 15 GHz and the output power is 33.65 dBm(2.3 W).

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.454-459
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• 2007

In this work, micro-scale, high-performance solenoid-type RF chip inductors utilizing amorphous $Al_2O_3$ core material were investigated. The size of the chip inductors was $0.86{\times}0.46{\times}0.45mm^3$ and copper(Cu) wire with $27{\mu}m$ diameter was used as the coil. High frequency characteristics of the inductance(L), quality factor(Q), impedance(Z), and equivalent circuit parameters of the RE chip inductors were measured and analyzed using an RF impedance/material analyzer(HP4291B with HP16193A test fixture). It was observed that the RF chip inductors with the number of turns of 9 to 12 have the inductance of 21 to 34nH and exhibit the self-resonant frequency(SRF) of 5.7 to 3.7GHz. The SRF of inductors decreases with increasing the inductance and inductors have the quality factor of 38 to 49 in the frequency range of 900MHz to 1,7GHz.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.785-788
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• 2005

In this study, micro-scale, high-performance, solenoid-type RF chip inductors were investigated. The size of the RF chip inductors fabricated in this work was $1.0{\times}0.5{\times}0.5mm^3$ The material and shape of the core were 96% $Al_2O_3$ and I-type. The material and number of turn of coil were copper (Cu) and 6. The diameter ($40{\mu}m$) of coil and length (0.35mm) of solenoid were determined by a Maxwell three-dimensional field simulator to maximize the performance of the inductors. High frequency characteristics of the inductance (L) and quality-factor (Q) of developed inductors were measured using an RF Impedance/Material Analyzer (HP4291B with HP16193A test fixture). The inductors developed have inductances of 10.8nH and quality factors of 25.2 at 250MHz, and show results comparable to those measured for the inductors prepared by CoilCraftTm that is one of the best chip inductor company in the world. The simulated data predicted the high-frequency data of the Land Q of the inductors developed well.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.780-784
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• 2006

We present high aspect ratio air-core solenoid inductors with $100{\mu}m\;and\;200{\mu}m$ tall via structures on Pyrex wafer. The effect of various parameters such as different number of turns, via heights, pitch distance between turns on inductor's radio frequency (RF) characteristics have been studied. The highest Q factor we obtained from various solenoid inductors is 72.8 at 9.7 GHz, which was produced by a 3-turn inductor.