Abstract
A solenoid inductor with a peak quality factor (Q max ) of 33.4 at 4.6 GHz has been realized on standard silicon wafers with a low-k dielectric layer using surface micromachining techniques. Experimental results show that the 6-turn inductor with: an aspect ratio (AR) of 0.5 gives a 98% increase in Q max , 40% increase in L/A ratio and ,245% increase in SRF as compared to the 6-tum inductor with an aspect ratio of 0.1. The improvement of Q max is mainly due to the reduced series resistance and parasitic capacitance between the inductor and the silicon substrate. © 2006 IEEE.