MEMS inductor in LC receivers for the RF link of cochlear implants

Abstract

In this paper, we present the study and simulation of different micromachined inductor models. We show, from simulation results, that the loss in the output voltage level is mainly due to the series metal resistance of the inductor. The inductor metal width was increased from 1.9 /spl mu/m to 10 /spl mu/m, which decreased the series resistance. The output voltage level increased from 1V to 3V. To further increase the cross sectional area of the inductor metal, a new concept of micromachined inductor on silicon is presented. The new inductor is formed by connecting metal 1 to metal 2, thus a reduction in the series resistance of 70% could be obtained.