Varying thickness inductor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9449753-B2
Application number	US-201414155244-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 14, 2014
Priority date	Aug 30, 2013
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

A particular device includes a substrate and a spiral inductor coupled to the substrate. The spiral inductor includes a first conductive spiral and a second conductive spiral overlaying the first conductive spiral. A first portion of an innermost turn of the spiral inductor has a first thickness in a direction perpendicular to the substrate. The first portion of the innermost turn includes a first portion of the first conductive spiral and does not include the second conductive spiral. A second portion of the innermost turn includes a first portion of the second conductive spiral. A portion of an outermost turn of the spiral inductor has a second thickness in the direction perpendicular to the substrate that is greater than the first thickness. A portion of the outermost turn includes a second portion of the first conductive spiral and a second portion of the second conductive spiral.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a substrate; and
a spiral inductor coupled to the substrate, the spiral inductor comprising a first conductive spiral defining a first coil and a second conductive spiral defining a second coil and overlaying the first conductive spiral, the spiral inductor further comprising a passivation layer including a first portion between the first conductive spiral and the second conductive spiral,
the spiral inductor including:
a first portion of an innermost turn having a first thickness in a direction perpendicular to the substrate, the first portion of the innermost turn including a first portion of the first conductive spiral and not including the second conductive spiral,
a second portion of the innermost turn including a second portion of the first conductive spiral and a second portion of the passivation layer overlaying the second portion of the first conductive spiral, the second portion of the innermost turn not including the second conductive spiral, and
a portion of an outermost turn of the spiral inductor having a second thickness in the direction perpendicular to the substrate, wherein the second thickness is greater than the first thickness, and the portion of the outermost turn including a third portion of the first conductive spiral and a second portion of the second conductive spiral.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a first length of the first conductive spiral is greater than a second length of the second conductive spiral.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the spiral inductor further comprises a conductive layer, wherein a third portion of the innermost turn of the spiral inductor has a third thickness in the direction perpendicular to the substrate, wherein the third thickness is less than the second thickness and greater than the first thickness, wherein the third portion of the innermost turn includes a third portion of the first conductive spiral, the conductive layer, and the second conductive spiral.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the first portion of the innermost turn does not include the conductive layer.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the portion of the outermost turn of the spiral inductor includes the conductive layer.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the conductive layer comprises a discontinuous spiral.

7. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the conductive layer comprises an input lead, an output lead, or a combination thereof.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first conductive spiral is electrically connected to the second conductive spiral by a via that extends through a portion of the passivation layer.

9. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein a thickness of the innermost turn in the direction perpendicular to the substrate monotonically increases from the first portion of the innermost turn to the second portion of the innermost turn.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a dielectric substrate formed of a glass material, an alkaline earth boro-aluminosilicate glass, Silicon (Si), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Indium Phosphate (InP), Silicon Carbide (SiC), a glass-based laminate, sapphire (Al 2 O 3 ), quartz, a ceramic, Silicon on Insulator (SOI), Silicon on Sapphire (SOS), high resistivity Silicon (HRS), Aluminum Nitride (AlN), a plastic, or a combination thereof.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the spiral inductor is formed of aluminum, copper, silver, gold, tungsten, molybdenum, an alloy of aluminum, silver, gold, tungsten, or molybdenum, or a combination thereof.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the spiral inductor is a stepped layer stack inductor.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a trace width associated with the spiral inductor is a minimum trace width that can be manufactured using a particular process technology used to fabricate the spiral inductor.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , integrated in at least one die.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a device selected from a mobile phone, a tablet, a set top box, a music player, a video player, an entertainment unit, a navigation device, a communications device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a fixed location data unit, and a computer, into which the substrate and the spiral inductor are integrated.

16. An apparatus comprising:
a substrate; and
a spiral inductor coupled to the substrate and including a first conductive spiral defining a first coil and a second conductive spiral defining a second coil and overlaying the first conductive spiral, the spiral inductor further including:
a conductive layer including a first portion between the first conductive spiral and the second conductive spiral and a second portion overlaying the first conductive spiral,
a first portion of an innermost turn having a first thickness in a direction perpendicular to the substrate, and
a second portion of the innermost turn having a second thickness in the direction perpendicular to the substrate, wherein the second thickness is greater than the first thickness,
wherein a thickness of the second portion of the conductive layer in the direction perpendicular to the substrate increases according to a gradient from the first thickness to the second thickness.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein a portion of an outermost turn of the spiral inductor has a third thickness in the direction perpendicular to the substrate, wherein the third thickness is greater than the first thickness.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the thickness of the spiral inductor monotonically increases from the first thickness to the third thickness.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the spiral inductor is a gradient layer stack inductor.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 , integrated in at least one die.

21. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising a device selected from a mobile phone, a tablet, a set top box, a music player, a video player, an entertainment unit, a navigation device, a communications device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a fixed location data unit, and a computer, into which the substrate and the spiral inductor are integrated.

22. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the spiral inductor further includes multiple passivation layers including the passivation layer and includes a conductive layer between the first portion of the passivation layer and a second passivation layer of the multiple passivation layers, the multiple passivation layers between the first conductive spiral and the second conductive spiral.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the spiral inductor comprises a spirangle inductor.

24. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the second portion of the conductive layer is not between the first conductive spiral and the second conductive spiral.

25. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the second portion of the innermost turn includes the second portion of the conductive layer.

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Kim Daeik Daniel
• Zuo Chengjie
• Yun Changhan Hobie
• Velez Mario Francisco
• Mikulka Robert Paul
• Zhang Xiangdong
• Kim Jonghae
• Lan Je-Hsiung

Classifications

• H01F17/0013 Primary

  with stacked layers · CPC title

• H01F2017/0053

  with means to reduce eddy currents · CPC title

• H01F2017/0073

  with a special conductive pattern, e.g. flat spiral · CPC title

• H01F41/042

  by thin film techniques · CPC title

• H01F27/2804 Primary

  Printed windings · CPC title