Publication Date

2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Committee Members

Antonio Crespo (Committee Member), Marty Emmert (Committee Member), Marian Kazimierczuk (Advisor), Raymond Siferd (Committee Member), Lavern Starman (Committee Member)

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Abstract

Integrated circuit technology continually presses toward higher transistor density and thus smaller dimensions, yet passive components which remain the bulk of the circuit area, surprisingly receive sideline attention. This work addresses a niche area of inductor design as it applies to the 3-dimensional (3-D) integration of active transistors and passive components. Hybrid, 3-D circuits residing on inexpensive silicon substrates can be fashioned using a photosensitive epoxy known as SU-8 serving as the interposer layer between the substrate and in which the passive components are embedded. The active components, which are known-good-chips, are secured with epoxy into deep reactive ion etched pockets in the silicon substrate. The inductors are fabricated in the SU-8 covering the active chips. This technique saves considerable money and increases the yield of 3-D circuits compared with the high cost of monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). The design of solenoid inductors was simulated using a Matlab model incorporating closed-form equations. Herein, that model was developed and verified against both empirical data from fabricated solenoids and against data from a physical simulator in CoventorWare's 3-D electromagnetic, software. A design of experiments examined the effect of solenoid geometry on inductance, quality factor and AC resistance. Additionally, solenoids were fabricated with ferromagnetic cores in an effort to study the potential of enhancing the inductance and quality factor.

Page Count

121

Department or Program

Ph.D. in Engineering

Year Degree Awarded

2010


Included in

Engineering Commons

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