Coil Inductor Assembly Method
- 詳細技術說明
- This technology-plastic deformation magnetic assembly (PDMA)-is an innovative, proven, patent-pending method for vertically assembling inexpensive, high-performance coil inductors that take up a small area on the chip and reduce noise due to substrate loss.
- *Abstract
-
This technology-plastic deformation magnetic assembly (PDMA)-is an innovative, proven, patent-pending method for vertically assembling inexpensive, high-performance coil inductors that take up a small area on the chip and reduce noise due to substrate loss. University researchers developed this novel assembly method for integrating coil inductors into radio frequency (RF) circuits. PDMA essentially stands the coil inductors vertically on end so that they take up far less space on the chip than planar inductors. This three-dimensional (3D) assembly method yields several advantages for the coil inductors themselves and consequently for the products that use them. The technique also can be used to improve other devices such as sensors.
DESCRIPTION/DETAILS
How It Works
Plastic deformation magnetic assembly (PDMA) is a novel three-dimensional batch-scale assembly technique that allows fabrication of a device (e.g., coil inductor) on a silicon substrate followed by assembly to a vertical position.
The PDMA process for making a vertical coil inductor begins with creating an ordinary planar coil inductor. Then, surface micromachining is used to render a portion of the device flexible. Deposition of a magnetic material, followed by application of a strong magnetic field, deforms the flexible portion and lifts the device to a vertical position. (See Figure 1 - attached)
While PDMA is suitable for a range of devices, the advantages are striking for inductors, because the reduced surface area greatly reduces substrate leakage and noise. The result is an inductor with high performance and a low cost of manufacture.
APPLICATIONS
Companies can license this coil inductor assembly technology for use in a variety of RF circuit and other applications.
- Consumer Products: This technology enables the low-cost manufacture of cell phones, beepers, and other wireless products that perform better than current products.
- Radio Products: Car and handheld radios, radar monitoring systems, global positioning systems (GPS), radio on a chip, and similar products all depend upon minimizing power requirements, weight, and size. This technology greatly improves manufacturers' ability to keep their radio products small and inexpensive.
- Transmissions and Communications: This technology's ability to create inductors that reduce noise means that antennas and receivers, radio towers, and aircraft transmissions can operate at higher performance levels than could previously be achieved.
- Other Devices: The fabrication technique for these vertical devices can be used in other applications beyond inductors. For example, in addition to making inductors for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), this technology can build other three-dimensional structures used in MEMS as well as other applications. The technique also can improve RF sensors, flow rate sensors, biosensors, arrayed low-cost flow sensors, hot wire anemometers, sensors for low-pressure monitoring, neuron recording probes, and other types of sensors.
- Inexpensive: The costs associated with assembling inductors onto circuits has a direct impact on the final cost of the product. Because PDMA provides a low-cost method for integrating coil inductors and circuits, integrated circuit foundries can reduce the cost of their products or increase profitability.
- Efficient assembly: Costs are reduced further due to PDMA's ability to assemble the 3D structures in a robust and efficient manner, allowing a large number of coil inductors to be fabricated at once.
- High performance: Because the coil inductors take up less space on the chip, that frees up more space (i.e., chip real estate) for other devices, improving performance and reducing costs.
- Higher quality factor: This factor, the ratio of inductance to resistance, measures the amount of signal stored as inductive power rather than wasted as heat. Horizontal planar coils generally offer a Q factor of only 8 or 9, while PDMA's vertical coils have achieved a Q factor of up to 22 (and factors of 30 or even 35 are expected).
- Reduced noise: Noise due to environmental electromagnetic background is a significant problem for integrated RF devices. This technology allows high-performance inductors to be placed directly on the integrated circuit chip, reducing the length of lead wires and hence the noise such wires would pick up.
- Easily integrated: Because PDMA provides a low-cost method for integrating coil inductors and circuits, integrated circuit foundries can reduce the cost of their products or increase profitability
For more information about this technology, please contact the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Office of Technology Management at otm@illinois.edu.
- *IP Issue Date
- None
- *IP Type
- Utility
- 國家
- United States
- 申請號碼
- 6922127
- 國家/地區
- 美國
