Novel enhanced-thickness magnetic nanoparticle thin-films for system-on-chip (SOC) wireless applications

In this paper, the propagation characteristics of an enhanced-thickness magnetic nanoparticle thin film are investigated on high resistivity silicon substrate (10,000 ohm-cm) for the first time up to 60 GHz. Contrary to other thin films, this nanoparticle thin film can achieve a thickness up to several hundred nanometers, even to micron. The enhanced thickness of this thin film is achieved by repeated coating of CoFe2O4 and poly, thus providing the thin film with the high permeability capable of potential practical wireless applications. Finite Ground Coplanar (FGC) waveguides are fabricated and characterized on silicon with the novel thin film. The measured attenuation and effective dielectric/magnetic constant are reported. Results show that the FGC waveguides with the thin film feature a lower attenuation compared to those on silicon for frequencies higher than 18 GHz. The extracted relative permeability has a value of 68 by matching of the effective dielectric/magnetic constant between simulation and measurement.