New RF magnetic stripe inductors with flanges based on exchange-coupled magnetic films

This work describes magnetically confined inductors using coplanar waveguide (CPW) lines. The fabrication uses antiferromagnetic exchange coupled iron-cobalt films with high ferromagnetic resonance frequency (5 to 7 GHz). A first type of inductors uses sandwiched lines and exhibits a linear density of inductance of 0.9 nH(.)mm(-1). A second type includes magnetic flanges and indicates 1.15 nH(.)mm(-1). The influence of the flanges contributes to 30% increase of the intrinsic coupling with the line. The measured inductance (L) and quality factor (Q) perfectly agree with theoretical permeability considerations. With meanders, we show L of similar to 3 nH which competes standard spiral inductors. We also demonstrate that Q only depends on the intrinsic values of the reference line (Q(0)) and the magnetic material (Q(mat)). Therefore, Q-optimization is possible at high frequency. We indicate a typical maximum of similar to 10 at 5 GHz.