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Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 308 (2007) 284288 www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm

Fabrication of a solenoid-type inductor with Fe-based soft magnetic core

Chong Leia, Yong Zhoua,, Xiao-Yu Gaoa, Wen Dinga, Ying Caoa, Hyung Choib, Jonghwa Wonb
a

National Key Laboratory of Nano/Micro Fabrication Technology, Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of Ministry of Education, Institute of Micro and Nano Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China b Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., 416 Maetan-Dong, Yeongtong-Gu, Suwon, Kyungki-Do 442-742, Republic of Korea Received 31 January 2006; received in revised form 12 May 2006 Available online 3 July 2006

Abstract A solenoid-type inductor was fabricated by MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) technique. The fabrication process uses UVLIGA, dry etching, ne polishing, and electroplating technique to achieve high performance of the solenoid-type inductor. Fe-based soft magnetic thin lm was sputtered as the magnetic core, and polyimide was used as the insulation materials. The inductor was in size of 4 4 mm with coil width of 20 mm and space of 35 mm. The inductance is 1.61 mH at a frequency of 5 MHz with the maximum quality factor of 1.42. r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Solenoid-type inductor; Fe-based magnetic thin lm; MEMS; Inductance; Quality factor

1. Introduction Recently, there has been a great demand for micro DC/ DC converters for the application of portable electronic products such as mobile communication product code division multiple access (CDMA), portable notebook computers, microprocessors, digital camcorders, and so on [18]. The key challenge in implementing miniaturized switching converters is to realize micromachined magnetic components with small dimension (p16 mm2) and high efciency at high frequency. To date, several types of planar thin lm inductors have been proposed for the use of switching power supplies operated at high frequencies over 1 MHz. Commonly, a planar thin lm inductor consists of a spiral coil, insulating layers and magnetic lms, and is fabricated on silicon or ceramic substrate using the microfabrication techniques. While, this type inductor always has large size, and the perpendicular ux
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 62933717; fax: +86 21 62823631.

E-mail address: yzhou@sjtu.edu.cn (Y. Zhou). 0304-8853/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jmmm.2006.06.002

components give rise to in-plane eddy current loss not only in the top and bottom magnetic lms, but also in the coil conductor lines. For example, Kim et al. [9] fabricated a dual spiral sandwich type thin lm inductor with inductance of 1 mH and quality factor (Q-factor) of 4, but the dimensions of the inductor were large (5 5 mm). Ryu et al. [10] also reported a twin spiral thin lm inductor with Fe-based nanocrystalline core, where the size of the inductor is 4 8 mm, and the measured inductance value is 0.8 mH at 1 MHz with Q-factor of 1.1. Sato et al. [11] fabricated a double-rectangular spiral coil between top and bottom FeCoBN thin lms, and the inducance is 0.36 mH at 5 MHz and Q-factor of 14.5, but in large size of 6.3 3.47 mm. Shin et al. [12] fabricated a similar type of inductor in size of 7.8 10 mm, with inductance of 1.1 mH and Q-factor of 7 at 5 MHz using FeTaN magnetic lm. In order to achieve the inductor with ultra-low prole working at high frequencies, magnetic thin lms with good soft magnetic properties, coils with low resistance, and well-designed inductor structures should be considered. Usually permalloy or Co-based amorphous lms have been

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used for the soft magnetic lms and a selective electroplating method to fabricate the Cu coils with low resistance is used, especially the Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) technique has become one of the most advanced technologies in fabricating three-dimensional structures and RF-MEMS with high aspect ratio [1315]. These micromachining techniques provide the approaches for miniaturization of inductors. Cores and conductors of several tens to hundreds of micrometers in thickness and width with good sidewall and dimensional control can be easily fabricated. A solenoid-type inductor having 4 1.0 0.13 mm3 and an inductance of 0.4 mH at 10 kHz with Q-factor of 1.5 at 1 MHz has been reported [14]. Pisani et al. [15] fabricated the spiral inductor with high Qfactor using copper/polyimide. In the present work, a solenoid-type inductor with ultra-low prole (4 4 mm) is fabricated using MEMS technique, which has high inductance and Q-factor in the frequency range of 110 MHz. 2. Design The solenoid-type inductor with ultra-low prole is composed of a magnetic thin lm core and multilevel metal conductors. It is designed to have a complete closed magnetic circuit with rectangular shape core as to minimize the ux leakage. Electroplating technique is used to fabricate the conductor lines and the conducting vias. Polyimide is used for the insulation materials between the coils and the magnetic thin lm core. For a solenoid-type inductor, the inductance at low frequency is calculated by the following equation [1618]: L m0 mr Am N 2 , lm (1)

the parasitic capacitance between the windings. In our experiment, the solenoid-type inductor has a prole of 4 4 mm2 with 80 turns of coils, line width of 20 mm, space of 35 mm. In order to achieve high inductance and miniaturize the size of the inductor, the shape of the magnetic core scheme is closed rectangular, of which the width of the long side and short side are 1.4 and 0.6 mm, respectively. 3. Experimental procedure A brief fabrication process for the solenoid-type inductor is shown in Fig. 1. The process started with a clean glass substrate. First, the double-side alignment marks were formed on the clean glass substrate, which was very important for double-side mask alignment photolithography (Fig. 1(a)). Then the chromium (20 nm)/copper (80 nm) seed layer was sputtered for electroplating the Cu coils and then covered by thick photoresist. The patterns of the bottom conductor traces, vias and pads were transferred by UV-photolithography, followed by the selective electroplating of the bottom conductor lines, vias and pads (Fig. 1(a)). After that, all the photoresists were removed with the acetone, and the seed layer was dry etched away using argon plasma by the sputtering machine 2440 with high power, in order to avoid the erosion of bottom copper conductor lines by wet etching. In order to isolate the conductor lines and the magnetic thin lm core, polyimide with a low-relative permittivity [15] was used as the insulation materials and the structure holder. Thick polyimide was spin coated on the bottom copper conductor lines and vias by two coats and cured at 250 1C for 2 h. For each coat of the polyimide, the thickness of polyimide was around 25 mm after soft bake at temperature of 90 1C. The cured polyimide was ne polished until the vias and pads were exposed out (Fig. 1(b)). To fabricate the magnetic core, amorphous soft FeCuNbCrSiB magnetic thin lm was deposited by magnetron sputtering and patterned by UV-photolithography, and then the magnetic lm was wet etched by the special chemical solutions. During the fabrication of the magnetic thin lm core, a thick protective layer was sputtered onto or below the FeCuNbCrSiB lm in order to avoid the etching of the magnetic thin lm core, pads and the vias, respectively (Fig. 1(c)). After the fabrication of the magnetic thin lm core, the vias and pads were electroplated with copper again. Next, another thick polyimide was spin coated, hard cured and ne polished to order to insulate the magnetic thin lm core from the top conductor lines (Fig. 1(d)). Finally, the top conductor lines were electroplated after UV-photolithography, which were used to complete the solenoid-type inductor (Fig. 1(d and e)). Fig. 2 shows the photograph of the fabricated solenoidtype inductor, which consists of the electroplated copper conductor lines, amorphous soft FeCuNbCrSiB magnetic thin lm core and polyimide as an insulation material.

where Am is the cross-sectional area of the magnetic core, lm is the total length of the closed magnetic core, N is the number of coil turns, m0 and mr are the vacuum and relative permeability of the core material, respectively. The Qfactor can be dened as follows: Q oL om0 mr NAm Ac , R 2w l rc l m (2)

where Ac is the cross-sectional area of the conductor, o the angular frequency, 2(w+l) the length of coil per turn, rc the resistivity of the conductor material. These two equations may not be so available for high frequencies when the eddy current loss and skin effect cant be neglected, but it still has the relevance in designing the solenoid-type inductor for frequencies below 10 MHz. From Eq. (1) one can nd that there are three ways to improve the inductance: (1) using the magnetic core with high-relative permeability; (2) increasing the cross-sectional area of the magnetic core through adding the magnetic core thickness; or (3) increasing the number of coil turns, which means decreasing the line width and space between the adjacent coils in a certain surface area, and also increasing

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Fig. 1. Fabrication process of a solenoid-type microinductor: (a) fabrication of alignment mark, electroplating of bottom conductor lines, vias and pads; (b) spin coating, curing and polishing of polyimide; (c) fabrication of magnetic core; (d) electroplating the vias and pads; spin coating, curing and polishing of polyimide; electroplating the top conductor; and (e) removal of seed layer.

Fig. 2. Photograph of the fabricated solenoid-type inductor.

The width of the electroplated copper conductor lines is 20 mm, space of 35 mm. Amorphous soft FeCuNbCrSiB magnetic thin lm core is 1.4 mm in width and 6 mm in thickness.

4. Results and discussion NiFe lm is widely used as a magnetic material for microinductor and microtransformer due to its high relative permeability ($800) and high saturation ux density (Bs) ($1 T). While, the typical disadvantage of low electrical resistance has restrictions for their high frequency applications. It has been found that the Finemet alloy showed superior soft magnetic properties such as high relative permeability, high Bs and high electrical resistivity beyond the conventional soft magnetic materials [19]. However, there are rarely reports on the solenoid-type

inductor with this new Fe-based soft magnetic thin lm. Here, we have fabricated the solenoid-type inductor with FeCuNbCrSiB lm as the core materials. Amorphous soft FeCuNbCrSiB magnetic thin lms were prepared on glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. The background pressure was 8 107 Torr, and during the deposition process, the sputtering power and the Ar pressure was 600 W and 4 104 Torr, respectively. X-ray and AFM were used to analyze the structure of the magnetic thin lm, and it showed that the as-deposited lm was in amorphous state, and it still remained in amorphous structure after lm was annealed at 300 1C for 30 min. The magnetic properties of the FeCuNbCrSiB lms were measured by VSM (vibrating sample magnetometer), and the saturation ux density (Bs) is 1.62 and 1.39 T for the as-deposited lm and after lm annealed at 300 1C, respectively. Fig. 3 shows the magnetization curve of the as-deposited FeCuNbCrSiB lm and after lm annealed at 300 1C for 30 min. The thickness of the as-deposited FeCuNbCrSiB lm is measured as 4 mm. The coercivity is 426 and 52.8 A/m for the as-deposited lm and after lm was annealed at 300 1C for 30 min, respectively. Measurements of the fabricated inductor were done in the frequency range of 110 MHz by using the Agilent E4991A RF impedance/material analyzer, combined with a microwave probe station produced by Cascade Microtech manufacturer. The Cascade Microtech ACP40-GS series probe was used as the probe head. Measurements were carried out after making the open/ short/ load calibration of the equipment. Fig. 4 shows the measured inductance (L) and Q-factor as a function of frequencies. As shown in

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0.020 0.015 Moment (emu) 0.010 0.005 0.000 -0.005 -0.010 -0.015 -150 (a) -100 -50 0 50 100 150 (a) Inductance (uH)

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0 2 6 4 Frequency (MHz) 8

Magnetic field (Oe)

0.09 0.06 Moment (emu) 0.03 Q-factor -100 (b) -75 -50 -25 0 25 50 75 100 Magnetic field (Oe) (b) 0.00 -0.03 -0.06 -0.09

1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 2 4 6 Frequency (MHz) 8

Fig. 3. Magnetization curves of the as-deposited FeCuNbCrSiB lm (a) and after lm annealed at 300 1C for 30 min (b).

Fig. 4. The dependence of the measured inductance (a) and quality factor (b) on frequencies.

Fig. 4(a), the inductance remains constant with the increase of frequency in the range of 110 MHz, and the inductance is 1.583 mH at a frequency of 1 MHz. Park et al. [18] reported a microinductor in size of 4 4 mm with electroplated NiFe magnetic core (35 mm in thickness), and the inductance of about 1 mH was achieved with Qfactor of 1.7 at 1 MHz, it is seen that our results is better than their results. From Fig. 4(a) one can nd that the FeCuNbCrSiB lm has a good frequency behavior in the frequency range of 110 MHz, and the calculated mr using the Eq. (1) is estimated to be 510 from the measured inductance values. The good frequency behavior is attributed to the high resistivity of FeCuNbCrSiB lm (rm 130 mO cm), this is because the skin depth dm p 2rm =om0 mr calculated using mr 510, is 25.4 mm and 8.02 mm for a frequency of 1 and 10 MHz, respectively, which is larger than the thickness of the FeCuNbCrSiB lm (4 mm), so that the eddy current loss is small, and the inductance keeps nearly constant in the frequency of 110 MHz. In addition, the calculated mr using the Eq. (1)

from the measured inductance values are much low than we expected. According to Bs m0 mr H k , where Hk is the anisotropy eld, using Hk 800 A/m as estimated from the longitudinal giant magneto-impedance effect for bulk FeCuNbCrSiB lm, the calculated permeability mr is around 1600 for the as-deposited FeCuNbCrSiB lm. Actually, the permeability mr will be affected by many factors: the main factor is the hard curling of the polyimide at 250 1C during the fabrication process of the inductor, because this heat treatment at 250 1C without magnetic eld will seriously affect the anisotropy, and thus reduces the magnetic permeability; another factor is the demagnetizing eld in the small size of the magnetic core. Both effects will evidently affect the magnetic permeability of the magnetic core of the inductor. In order to improve the magnetic permeability of the magnetic thin lm, magnetic eld annealing is required. The curve of Q-factor along with the frequency is shown in Fig. 4(b). It is seen that the Q-factor increases with the increase of frequency, and reaches at its maximum value at

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a certain frequency, and then decreases with further increase of frequency. The maximum Q-factor is about 1.42 with inductance value of 1.61 mH at a frequency of 5 MHz. As can be seen from Fig. 4(b) that the formula (2) cant be available in the frequency range of 110 MHz, and formula (2) can be valid only for very low frequency (a few kHz). Here, for our fabricated solenoid-type inductor, the skin effect of the copper conductors, eddy current loss of the magnetic core and the series capacity all will contribute to the Q-factor. For example, using the well-known copper resistivity, rc 1.7 mO cm, the skin depth is 29.3 and 20.8 mm for a frequency of 5 and 10 MHz, respectively, which is comparable to the thickness of the copper conductors (12 mm). Thus, the actual resistance of the winding coils will increase with the increasing frequency. Similarly, the eddy current loss of the magnetic core will cause the resistance of the inductor with the increase of frequency. The series capacity will also degrade the Qfactor, because there are many ampere turns of the coils. The series capacity is mainly due to the coupling of conductor lines and the coupling between the conductor lines with the magnetic core. Thus, from the above analysis, one can conclude that Q-factor will have its maximum value with the increase of frequency. Although the value of Q-factor is acceptable for the micro DC/DC converter application, further improvements will be done possibly by the reduction of Cu coil resistance with increasing coil thickness.

Acknowledgments This work was supported by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Shanghai-Applied Materials Research and Development Fund (No. 0515), the National High Technology Research and Development Program (No. 2004AA302042), the Nanotechnology Program of Shanghai Science & Technology Committee (No. 0352nm014), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.50275096). The authors would like to thank the staff at Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology for their assistance with measurement. References
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5. Conclusion A solenoid-type inductor was fabricated using copper as conductor, amorphous soft Fe-based magnetic lm as magnetic core and polyimide as the insulation materials. The size of the inductor is 4 4 mm with magnetic core in rectangular shape. The experimental results show that the inductance is 1.583 mH at a frequency of 1 MHz, and the maximum Q-factor is 1.42 with a inductance value of 1.61 mH at a frequency of 5 MHz, which seems to be very attractive for the application of micro DC/DC converters.