Improved RF integrated magnetic thin-film inductors by means of micro slits and surface planarization techniques

Improvement of magnetic thin-film inductors for RF monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) is discussed. Surface planarization reduced the surface roughness down to R/sub a/=1.2 nm, which enhanced the quality factor by 14% over a nonplanarized inductor. The orthogonal bar slit pattern was the best among the fabricated slit patterns, L=7.55 nH (+12% of the air core), R=6.80 /spl Omega/ and Q=7.09 (+9%) were obtained for the orthogonal bar slit pattern (slit width=0.75 /spl mu/m) with surface planarization.