Modeling and Manufacturing AAO-Based Micropatterned Chip Inductors for GHz Applications

In this work, contrary to the conventional 3D model for wire-wound chip inductors, we present a novel design featuring a copper wirewound chip inductor, where 4.5 turns of a 20-μm-thick copper wire is wound around the substrate at an optimized distance of 50 μm from the substrate edge using photolithography. ANSYS HFSS package was employed to simulate the inductor by considering coil widths of 20 μm, 30 μm, and 40 μm. A high self-resonance frequency beyond 10 GHz was achieved. Moreover, with an increase in the coil width, the inductance at 250 MHz slightly decreased and the Q-factor at 250 MHz reached 32 for the 40 μm coil width. Subsequently, a simulated inductor with a coil width of 30 μm was fabricated by implementing a photolithography process on an anodic aluminum oxide 6-inch wafer, achieving a high inductance value of 5.9 nH at 250 MHz.