The Inductance Enhancement Study of Spiral Inductor Using Ni–AAO Nanocomposite Core

The letter presents the fabrication and characterization of on-chip spiral inductors with Ni-anodic alumina oxide (Ni-AAO) nanocomposite core. Ni nanorods with 70 nm diameter are deposited and isolated in an AAO matrix to form a layer of nanocomposite on silicon substrate. About 3% inductance enhancement to the inductor with the nanocomposite core has been observed and the enhancement can be kept up more than 6 GHz. Because the proposed inductance enhancement scheme using ferromagnetic-AAO-based nanocomposite as inductor core employs a CMOS-compatible fabrication process with the characteristics that can be further improved, it is our belief that the scheme has a great potential application for future radio frequency integrated circuitry (RFIC) manufacture.