A high Q on-chip Cu inductor post process for Si integrated circuits

Abstract

A technique has been developed to add high Q inductors to conventional silicon integrated circuits as a post processing step. The inductors are formed by copper plating over a low k dielectric layer of polyimide. An electroless copper deposition technique is used with a plating guide providing a simple method of producing high quality patterned metal. Inductors with a peak Q as high as 17 at a frequency of 2 GHz have been fabricated.