Nano-powder-magnetic-core vertically stacked-spiral RF inductor in CMOS

Abstract

This paper reports a novel concept of vertically stacked-spiral RF inductor with integrated nano-powder-magnetic-core in standard CMOS. Prototype inductors in a foundry 0.18µm 6-metal CMOS and a post-CMOS backend process module (i.e., CMOS+) are fabricated and measured. Result shows the proof-of-concept designs greatly increase the inductance, L, by up to 34% and the factor, Q, by 62% over a multi-GHz frequency range.