Integrated planar spiral inductors with CoFe and NiFe ferromagnetic layer

Abstract

aperture of the feed instead of behind the lens. The efficiency of the FZPA with hex-cut zones, described in this work, can also be improved using this method. SUMMARYA study investigating the performance of a FZPA with hex-cut zones was presented. The concept of trimming the standard circular zones by an optimum hexagon was explained as a method to achieve the array packing and sidelobe control advantages of the hexagonal shape without sacrificing the antenna's performance. Simulation results were obtained for the FZPA with alternating hex-cut zones where it was shown that this structure has radiation characteristics very similar to the standard FZPA. This confirmed that cutting the circular zones would not excessively degrade the radiation patterns. Simulations of the FZPA with rotated hex-cut zones revealed that a better overall sidelobe level than the standard version could be achieved, and, more importantly, these simulations showed how the level and location of the sidelobes can be controlled by rotating the hex-cut zones in a specific manner. Measurements were performed and were found to match closely with the simulated results. This work has confirmed that the hex-cut FZPA offers notable advantage over the standard FZPA for applications in terrestrial wireless and satellite. The integration of inductors with other circuit components on a common substrate has been a major challenge for the monolithic implementation of microwave and radio frequency (RF) circuits. Initially considered as a primary barrier for the on-chip integration of inductors was the significantly degraded quality factor (Qfactor), which has triggered extensive efforts to improve the Qfactor (for example, [1]). Recently, however, the large area occupied by the inductors has emerged as yet another serious challenge.As the CMOS scaling continues, chip cost per area keeps increasing, rendering the bulky on-chip inductors increasingly costly. Hence, effectively increasing the inductance density (i.e., inductance per area) of on-chip inductors surfaces as an impending issue.One natural but promising approach for inductance density enhancement is to employ ferromagnetic (FM) materials for the inductors. The inductance of an inductor is proportional to the generated magnetic flux per current, which can be increased with a FM material present in the flux path. FM materials such as CoNbZr [2][3][4][5] [9] have been applied to solenoid inductors. The effect of FM material is different for the two types of inductors. Solenoid FM inductors tend to exhibit larger performance improvements since the major flux path is mostly covered with FM material. Spiral FM inductors, while providing moderate improvements due to a partial coverage of the flux path with FM material, benefit from a better compatibility with the standard CMOS process. Hence, spiral FM inductors are considered as a more immediate solution for integration. In this work, we present spiral inductors that employ CoFe and NiFe as FM material. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first rep...

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