1804 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. MAG-20, NO.

5 , SEPTEMBER 1984

PLANm INDUCTOR

K. KAWABE H. KOYAMA and K. SHIRAE

ABSTRACT

As the first stepfor developing magnetic I.C, planar In this figure, the hoop coil and magnetic layers are
inductorshavebeeninvestigated.Planarinductor,
which does not require conventional winding, consists
of planar coil and two magnetic films which sandwich
the coil. Design parameters have been obtained for four
types of planar inductors, hoop type, spiral type,
meander type and closed type. We fabricated a hoop
type
and a meander type planar
inductor.
The
inductance of the hoop type was about40 nH at 1 MHz,
and showed flatness up to10 MHz. In the meander type,
the inductance was about100 nH at 1 MHz, and showed a
flat response till 40 MHz.
1. INTRODUCTION
Up to now, bulk cores wound by copper wire have been
used in many magnetic applications, especially in power
devices, because the bulk substanses are suitable for
power control. On the other hand, in the magnetic
devices for signal detection and processing, we may
able to miniaturize the devices and further acquire
more excellent performances by integration, that is,
magnetic I.C.We consider the planar inductor is
fundamental element of the future magnetic I.C. The
planar inductor isa multilayered inductor such that a
planarcoilissandwichedbytwomagneticfilms.
Although such an inductor of spiral type has been
proposed by Soohoo [ I ] , we treat here many possible
planar inductors systematically, they are hoop type,
spiraltype,meandertypeandclosedtype.Design
parameters of all those planar inductors are presented.
Fabrication techniques and experimental results on two difficult to realizein the practical materials. There-
types of the planar inductors are described also.
2. DESIGN OF PLANAR INDUCTORS
2.1 TYPE OF COILS
Three types of coils are shown in Fig.1. Hoop coil
(a) is the simplest. Spiral coil (b) gives the largest
inductance, but it is difficult to take the lead from
the center of the coil. Meander coil (e) gives smaller
loss at high frequencyas mentioned later.
drawn as rectangular patterns, but they maybe circle
or others.
The inductance can be expressed as
where a is the coil size, b the magnetic layer size,g
the thickness of the insulation layer,t the thickness
of the magnetic layer, and u* the specific permeability
of the magnetic layer.
If the coil is a copper film of width w and thickness
d, the de resistance of the coil is written as
R(h)= p(4ahd) , (2)
where p is the conductivity of copper.
be The stray capacitance between coil and magnetic layer
through insulation layer is as follows,
a C(h)= ~[16aw/(g-d)] , (3)
where E is the dielectric constant of the insulation
layer.
The calculated inductances are shownin Fig.3, where
we take b fl times ofa.
As seen in Fig.3, L(h) is proportional to the product
of ii* and t, and independent of g. The effect of g
appears only at very large U*t, which are the values
fore, we can increase g without the decrease of the
inductance. For moderate value of p*t, say 3x103 Urn,
L(h) is 20 nH for a=10 mm, and is also 20 nH for a=lmm
because the g terms are negligibly smallin (1). These
properties (independences of g and a) are quite favor-
able to miniaturize the inductor size, and decrease
R(h) and C(h) by makingg and d larger.
insulation layer

Fig.1. Planar c o i l s . (a) hoop type, (b) spiral type, Fig.2. Hoop type inductor. (a) cross sectional view,
(c) meander type. (b) over view.

2.2 HOOP TYPE PLANAR INDUCTOR

Hoop type planar inductor is shown in Fig.2. Two

magnetic layers sandwich the hoop coil, which
is sepa- Fig . 3 .
rated from the magnetic layers by the insulation layer.
Calculated induc-
Manuscript received May2, 1984. tance of hoop type
Authors are with Faculty of Engineering Science, inductor .
a=l0mm
560
Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan, and b=14mm.

0018-9464/84/0900-1804$01.0001984 IEEE
 1805

2.3 SPIRAL TYPE PLANAR INDUCTOR

Spiral type planar inductor is shown in Fig.&. The
calculation of the inductance is very difficult,SO we
layer r insulation layer
,-magnetic
/-- coi
\

assume that the each coil is lumped on the square of

a/fi. Then the inductance can be expressed approximate-
ly as follows,
poa2N2
L(s)= 3
flab
2g + (bz/a8-1/2)
Fig.6. Meander type inductor. (a) cross sectional
+-

view, (b) over view.

where N is the number of the spiral turns, and other
parametersarethesameas in thehoop.Thecoil
resistance and the capacitance are given as follows
respectively,
p(2a/wd) R(s)= (5) Fig.7,

(N+1) &[8aw/(g-d)]
C(s)= (6) Calculated induc-
tance of meander
The calculated inductances are shown
in Fig.5. type inductor.
L(s) shows the characteristics similar to that
of the a=lOnnn.
hoop type inductor, but L(s) is larger than L(h) ,
because of the multiplication N2.
by
Furthermore for larger N than unity, N2 plays the
equivalent role to p*t. Therefore, we can obtain larger
inductance for lower p*t comparing with the hoop type.
For instance, L(m) is 24 nH for V*t=102 I-lm and N=lO,
whereas L(h) is only 0.7 nH for p*t=102 Vm. Independen-
cies ofg and a inL(m) hold in this type also.

2.5 CLOSED TYPE PLANAR INDUCTOR WITH MEANDER COIL

Closed type planar inductor is shown in Fig.8. The

closed magnetic circuit is realized by removing a non-
magnetic layer from the magnetic path. The coil itself
Fig.4. Spiral type inductor. (a) cross sectional is the meander type coil. This inductor is equivalent
view, (b) over view. to a straight wire with the length of 2aN, wrapped by
magnetic layer. Therefore the inductance can be easily
1
0-’ g= calculated as
3vm
10
3
w (IO)
10
L(c)= a+(ZN-l)h
+ 2o(g+t) 9

Z(2N-l)Nt
N[a-(ZN-l)h]
Fig .5, - 3
10 where h is the width of the insulation layer along the
Calculated induc- coil line.
tance of spiral Theresistanceandthecapacitancearewrittenas
type inductor . lo2 lo4
lo6
lo8 follows,
a = l b and b=14mm,
p(Za/wd)N R(c)= (11)
2.4 MEANDER TYPE PLANAR INDUCTOR
&[8aw/(g-d)lN C(c)= (12)
Meander type planar inductor is shown in Fig.6. As
seen in this figure, the direction of the flux changesThe calculated inductances as a function of t are
alternatelywiththepitchofthemeandercoil, shown inFig.9. We chose h as a/4N, because h cannot be
a/(2N-1) , where N isthe number of the meanders (N=4 in independent ofN.
Fig.6). Therefore, the path of each flux is restricted As shown in Fig.9, L(c) is in proportion to t and N2.
within a narrow strip. Thus magnetic layer size is The influenceof g isnegligibly smallfor g<50 urn if N
chozen as 2Na/(2N-I) to cover the coil. is smaller than 1000; such a large value ofN is seldom
The inductance can be expressed as follows, realized in practice.
Large inductance can be obtained in this type; for
a2 example, L(c) is 32 nH for V*=102, t=l urn and N=10.
L(m)= 2 (2N-1): 2 9 (7) This value is larger thanL(m) of the same dimensions.
N (PN-lTNy*t
+

where the parameters are the same as in the hoop. magnetic layer
The resistance and the capacitance are expressed as
follows, h- insulation layer
,coil -6
R(m)= (8)

C(m)= &[8aw/(g-d)]N (9)

The calculated inductances are shownin Fig.7.
As shown in Fig.”, L(m) is proportional to p*t also. Fig.8. Cross section of closed type inductor.
1806

--mag .film

Fig.9.
Calculated inductance
of closed type induc-
tor. a=l0mm,g<5Oum,
p*=lOOO and h=2,5/Nmm.

2.6 COMPARISON OF PLANAR INDUCTOR Fig.10. Fabrication processes of planar inductor,

Typical data for four different type inductors are
summarized in Table 1. For the inductance, the spiral
type is the largest, and the hoop type is the smallest.
For the measure of the operating frequency range, we
use fr, the resonance frequency of the inductance and
the stray capacitance, given by fr=l/2vm. The hoop
type has the highest fr, while the other types have
much lower fr than the hoop type. Quality factor Q of
the inductor at Lhe resonance frequency are similar
with each other. Therefore, we cannot find the induc- Fig.11. Coil patterns of planar inductors.
tor, which is superior in all items. (a) hoop type, (b) meander type.

Table 1. Performance of planar inductors.

a=lGmm, b=14mm, g=lOpm, t=3pm,p>t=lOOO, R=10,
w=o.Zmm, d=3pm, h=0.25mm and Er"4.
The above comparisons are made assuming that the
magnetic layers have an ideal property in respect to
the frequency. But in practice, the iron losses of the
magnetic layers must be put in consideration. In the
hoopandspiraltypes,thefluxpathiswidely
spreading, while in the meander and closed types, the
flux path is restricted in narrow channels. Therefore,
the meander and closed type inductors will have better
frequency characteristics than the hoop and spiral
difference of the magnetic losses as mentionedin the
previous chapter. The resonance frequency of L(m) is
about 50 MHz, while that of L(h) is much higher as
shown in the Table 1 and out,of the scale. At lower
frequency, L(m) is about 100 n€i and in good agreement
of the calculated value of 137 nH; while L(h) is about
40 nH, much larger than the calculated value of3 nH.
Wide spreading of the leakage flux out of the magnetic
layers is considered to cause the discrepancy. Both
inductor have smallQ ( - 1 ) . The increase of R(h) with
the frequency is due to the eddy current effect, while
that of R(m) is due to the resonance.
1-00
1
5
m
u
10 ;
d

.
d
in
types
2
3. FABRICATION AND RESiiLTS
1
We fabricated hoop type and meander type inductor.
The fabrication processes are shown in Fig.10. Mo-
permalloy magnetic film is deposited by de sputtering Fig.12. Frequency dependences of planar inductors.
on a glass substrate. Silicon monoxide insulation film L(m) : inductance of meander type inductor,
is depositedby vacuum evaporation. Copper film on thin L(h): inductance o f hoop type inductor,
chromium film is also deposited by vacuum evaporation. R(m) : resistance of meander type inductor,
Chromium is deposited in order to obtain good contact R(h): resistance of hoop type inductor.
of copper to silicon monoxide. Then, coil is formed by
photo etching. At this step, coil patterns of hoop and
meander type are shown in Fig.11. After forming the
coil,silicon
monoxide
insulationfilmand
Mo- L. CONCLUSION
permalloymagnetic
film
is
depositedby
vacuum
evaporation. Four possible types of the planar inductors have bee
Thedimensions
offabricated
inductors are
as evaluated. Every inductor has its own characteristics.
follows; t of the lower magnetic films are 1.4 pm (for In viewpoints of the inductance and frequency response
hoop) and 1.7 pm (for meander); g is 6 Urn; t of the the meander and closed type of planar inductors are
upper magnetic films are 1.2 pm (for hoop) and 0.2 vm considered appropriate for the elements of the magnetic
(for meander) ; the average p" are 670 (for hoop) and I.C. Hoopandmeandertypeinductorshavebeen
2100 (for meander); a is 8 mm; for hoop type, b is fabricated using the thin film technique. For further
13 mm; for the meander type, N is 8; w are 0.5 mm (for improvement, we must devise to make the film thicker.
hoop) and 0.25 mm (for meander); d is 2 pm.
Theinductancesandresistancesofthehoopand
meander type inductors are shown in Fig.12. L(h) begins REFERENCE
to decrease gradually at about 10 MHz, while L(m) is
nearly constant to40 MHz. This is probably due to the [I] R.F.Soohoo, IEEE Tr., MAG-15, 1803, 1979.