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mems12
The picture above is a comparison of the "big" discrete inductors and the wafer ...
resistion
How large? Microhenries?
Enpirion claims boost in CMOS power across 2nd dimension
Michael Singer
11/28/2012 4:30 PM EST
Adding copper
Enpirion's Liakopoulos notes that his company's combination of these existing technologies will make power management on CMOS wafers more common and less expensive.
"With wafer electroplating methods, it is possible to cost effectively deposit photo-lithographically defined [Fe-Co alloy] magnetic cores on silicon wafers," Liakopoulos said. The technology has been transferred and embedded in a volume wafer production facility earlier this year, Liakopoulos said. The alloy is part of Enpirion's noise sensitive, low power POL DC-DC converters, the 1 Amp EL711 and the 1,5 Amp EL712.
Enpirion’s wafer level magnetics inductor showing multiple layers of FCA around copper
Source: Enpirion
According to its published roadmap, Enpirion's next milestone will be adding copper on its Fe-Co alloy on silicon to allow 12kW per inch3. The company says it has plans to continue shrinking packages to roughly a quarter of the current size and increasing the kilowatts output to 50 kW per inch3 at frequencies higher than 40 mHz by layering multi-FCA and Dielectric on silicon sometime in 2016.
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Enpirion's Liakopoulos notes that his company's combination of these existing technologies will make power management on CMOS wafers more common and less expensive.
"With wafer electroplating methods, it is possible to cost effectively deposit photo-lithographically defined [Fe-Co alloy] magnetic cores on silicon wafers," Liakopoulos said. The technology has been transferred and embedded in a volume wafer production facility earlier this year, Liakopoulos said. The alloy is part of Enpirion's noise sensitive, low power POL DC-DC converters, the 1 Amp EL711 and the 1,5 Amp EL712.
Enpirion’s wafer level magnetics inductor showing multiple layers of FCA around copper
Source: Enpirion
According to its published roadmap, Enpirion's next milestone will be adding copper on its Fe-Co alloy on silicon to allow 12kW per inch3. The company says it has plans to continue shrinking packages to roughly a quarter of the current size and increasing the kilowatts output to 50 kW per inch3 at frequencies higher than 40 mHz by layering multi-FCA and Dielectric on silicon sometime in 2016.
Related stories:
HP Lab sees ARM, Atom, memristors in server future
Flexible electronics breakthrough claimed
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unknown multiplier
11/28/2012 10:04 PM EST
Is this just a case of putting a discrete on-chip?
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mems12
11/29/2012 11:25 AM EST
The picture above is a comparison of the "big" discrete inductors and the wafer level micro-inductors they sit on.
The announcement is about the capability to incorporate magnetic alloy with wafer processing to make such MEMS inductors possible.
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Traces
11/29/2012 5:52 AM EST
Well, yes, but the passive being put on chip here is ferrite core inductors, which is a big deal, as it allows very large inductors needed for reasonably low frequency switching power supplies to be integrated.
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resistion
11/29/2012 7:39 AM EST
How large? Microhenries?
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