Journal article · Ahead of Print article
Microfabricated Air-core Toroidal Inductor In Very High Frequency Power Converters
DTU Danchip, Technical University of Denmark1
Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Technical University of Denmark2
Silicon Microtechnology, Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Technical University of Denmark3
Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark4
Electronics, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark5
Miniaturization of power supplies is required for future intelligent electronic systems e.g. internet of things devices. Inductors play an essential role, and they are by far the most bulky and expensive components in power supplies. This paper presents a miniaturized microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inductor and its performance in a very high frequency (VHF) power converter.
The MEMS inductor is a siliconembedded air-core toroidal inductor, and it is constructed with through-silicon vias, suspended copper windings, silicon fixtures, and a silicon support die. The air-core inductors outperform the silicon-core inductors with higher quality factor at higher frequency. This is verified by small-signal measurements.
A 20turn air-core inductor achieved an inductance of 44.6 nH and a quality factor of 13.3 at 33 MHz, while a silicon-core inductor with the same geometry has a quality factor of 9 at 20 MHz. A DC-DC class-E boost converter is designed and implemented using the fabricated MEMS air-core inductor and a highperformance 65 V gallium nitride field effect transistor.
The VHF converter achieved a peak efficiency of 78 % at the input voltage of 6.5 VDC. The MEMS inductor can carry 1 A RMS AC current at 33 MHz and delivers 10.5 W to the output.
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | IEEE |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Pages: | 604-613 |
| ISSN: | 21686785 and 21686777 |
| Types: | Journal article and Ahead of Print article |
| DOI: | 10.1109/JESTPE.2018.2798927 |
| ORCIDs: | Lê Thanh, Hoà , Nour, Yasser , Han, Anpan , Jensen, Flemming , Ouyang, Ziwei and Knott, Arnold |
DC-DC power converters Gallium nitride Inductor Microelectromechanical systems Zero voltage switching
DC-DC power convertors DC–DC power converters Fabrication Fixtures Inductors Internet-of-Things devices MEMS inductor Micromechanical devices Q-factor Silicon Through-silicon vias VHF converter Windings dc-dc class-E boost converter frequency 20.0 MHz frequency 33.0 MHz gallium compounds gallium nitride high-frequency power converters highfrequency power converter inductor inductors microelectromechanical systems (MEMSs) microfabricated air-core toroidal inductor microfabrication micromechanical devices miniaturized microelectromechanical system inductor power 10.5 W power supplies silicon silicon fixtures silicon support silicon-core inductors through-silicon vias wide band gap semiconductors zero voltage switching (ZVS)
