Design of microfabricated inductors for microprocessor power delivery

Abstract

Microfabricated inductor designs are proposed for converters for microprocessor power delivery. The fabrication process uses anisotropic silicon etching to form V-grooves; granular metal/insulator nanoscale composite magnetic materials; and copper conductors. An application specific calculation procedure results in an inductor design with predicted power density over 200 W/cm/sup 2/ at 95% efficiency for an 8 MHz, 3.6 V to 1.1 V converter.