Relevant publications:
Measuriment and Performance of Embedded LTCC
Inductors Utilizing Full Tap Thickness Feature Conductors
Adam Boutz and William B. Kuhn
IMAPS/ACerS 5th International Conference and Exhibition on Cermaic
Interconnect and Ceramic Microsystems Technologies (CICMT 2009), January
2009
Iductors in LTCC Utilizing Full Tape Thickness Features
Adam Boutz, Kansas State University, 2007
LTCC Inductors and Filters
Of the three passive components, inductors have always proven to
be the most difficult to fabricate in an "ideal" sense. There
exist several different techniques used to create inductors, both
"on-chip" and "off-chip," but these current methods are plauged by
several real-world effects that hinder performance or consume
significant real estate.
However, in order to develop better RF technologies, analog filters must
be built with as high of a Q-factor as possible. The only way to
create filters of significantly high Q is to fabricate components that
behave "ideally," i.e. attenuate the effects of such phenomena as
current crowding, skin effect, and other non-linearities introduced.
One former student's
publication documents the design and performance of LTCC Inductors
and Filters. LTCC, or "Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic," is a
process of fabricating resistors, capacaitors, and inductors.
Unlike SMD, LTCC devices are made layer and layer and then are later put
together. By using a three dimensional inductor geometry,
and thus increasing the effective surface area of the inductor, the
aforementioned real-world effects can be minimized, and in LTCC
Q-factors of 60 can be acheived.
Testing Our LTCC Inductor
Below is an image generated by 3-Dimensional component design software.
The inductor modeled above was physically made, and its characteristics were measured in the Miocrowave design lab. Below are pictures of measurements being taken using a Network Analyzer.
