Design of microfabricated inductors for microprocessor power delivery

This paper presents a compact nonlinear frequencydependent circuit model for microinductors with magnetic thinfilm cores. The model captures saturation, high-frequency eddy currents in the conductors and core, and capacitive effects. A modeling extraction algorithm is proposed that generates a passive and accurate circuit from current-biased small-signal impedance measurements. These measurements are wafer-level compatible and can readily be made using an impedance analyzer or vector network analyzer. The model is applicable to the most common microinductor topologies, including toroidal, stripline, and racetrack used for integrated power electronics applications. We demonstrate the model performance of these three different microinductor geometries with commercially available field solvers as well as actual device measurements for switched mode power supply applications. Field-solver simulations show that the model captures ac power loss significantly better than traditional models and captures the current waveforms within 4.5% error. Comparison of the model to device measurements results in an RMS error less than 7.1% in current waveform for a device transitioning in and out of saturation due to a 10-MHz rectangular pulse.Index Terms-DC-DC power conversion, eddy currents, equivalent circuit modeling, magnetic films, microinductor.

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“…The second case is a stripline inductor motivated from the V-groove inductor in [8]. It should be noted that the V-groove Fig.…”

Section: B Case 2-3-d V-groove Inductormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…in [8] is only a starting point, we have altered the materials and length to be suitable for our converter. The conductor is a copper equilateral triangular bar with a 420-μm side length and 29.2-mm length.…”

Section: B Case 2-3-d V-groove Inductormentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Microinductors With Thin-Film Alloy Magnetic Cores

Gaskill

Papou

Mohan

et al. 2014

IEEE Trans. Power Electron.

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“…Our design analysis [12], [13] indicates that they will enable dramatic improvements in performance compared to inductors built with conventional thin-film materials [11], particularly for addressing the emerging problem of supplying high current (near 100 A) at low voltage (near 1 V) for future microprocessors and other digital electronics. For high volume production of relatively thick films (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaporatively deposited Co-MgF/sub 2/ granular materials for thin-film inductors

et al. 2000

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Co-MgF 2 granular thin films prepared by thermal evaporation are reported. The fabricated materials show promise as high-frequency, low-loss cores for microfabricated magnetic devices in microprocessor power delivery applications. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals Co grains of about 3.2 nm embedded in a MgF 2 matrix 1 to 2 nm wide. Films were prepared with 20% to 89% volume cobalt at substrate temperatures between 21 C and 311 C. Good soft magnetic properties in a range of 40% to 55% volume cobalt with high dc resistivity of 500 -cm to 100 -cm are measured for films deposited at room temperature. Low intrinsic coercivity, ci of 0.76 Oe and susceptibility, of 26 in the easy axis direction with quality factor, over 100 and saturation flux density, of 0.7 T are obtained.

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“…where V IN is the converter input voltage and D is the converter duty cycle [25] and should be chosen as 0.5 for a worst-case current ripple. The effective inductor efficiency γ L,EF F should be determined as a ratio between power delivered to the load, and the power input to the inductors.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery Act: Integrated DC-DC Conversion for Energy-Efficient Multicore Processors

Shepard¹

2013

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Design of microfabricated inductors for microprocessor power delivery

Cited by 19 publications

References 38 publications

Modeling Microinductors With Thin-Film Alloy Magnetic Cores

Modeling Microinductors With Thin-Film Alloy Magnetic Cores

Evaporatively deposited Co-MgF/sub 2/ granular materials for thin-film inductors

Recovery Act: Integrated DC-DC Conversion for Energy-Efficient Multicore Processors

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