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Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop a high-quality factor fractal inductor for wireless applications such as satellite, WLAN, Bluetooth, microwave, radar and cellular phone. Design/methodology/approach The Hilbert fractal curve is used in the implementation of the proposed inductor. In the proposed inductor, the metal width has split into multiple paths based on the skin depth of the metal. The simulations of the proposed inductor are performed in 180 nm CMOS technology using the Advanced Design System EM simulator. Findings The multipath technique reduces the skin effects and proximity effects, which, in turn, decreases the series resistance of the inductor and attains high-quality factor over conventional fractal inductor for the equal on-chip area. Research limitations/implications The width of the path has chosen higher than the skin depth of the metal for a required operating frequency. Due to cost constraints, the manufacturing of the proposed fractal inductor is limited to a single layer. Practical implications The proposed inductor will be useful for the implementation of critical building blocks of radio frequency integrated circuits and monolithic microwave integrated circuits such as low-noise amplifiers, voltage-controlled oscillators, mixers, filters and power amplifiers. Originality/value This paper presents for the first time the use of a multipath technique for the fractal inductors to enhance the quality factor.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design an on-chip inductor with high inductance, high-quality factor and high self-resonance frequency for the equivalent on-chip area using fractal curves. Design/methodology/approach A novel hybrid series stacked differential fractal inductor using Hilbert and Sierpinski fractal curves is proposed with two different layers connected in series using vias. The inductor is implemented in Sonnet EM simulator using 180 nm CMOS standard process technology. Findings The proposed inductor reduces the parasitic capacitance and negative mutual inductance between the adjacent layers with significant improvement in overall inductance, quality factor and self-resonance frequency when compared with conventional series stacked fractal inductors. Research limitations/implications The fractal inductor is used to create high inductance in the single-layer process, but access to multilayers is restricted owing to unusual and expensive fabrication processes. Practical implications The proposed inductor can be used in implementation of low noise amplifier, voltage controlled oscillators and power amplifiers. Originality/value This paper introduces a combination of two fractal curves to implement a hybrid fractal inductor that enhances the performance of the inductor.