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I. INTRODUCTION
HE pressure of handheld electronic devices has brought
along an on-going trend of miniaturization applied to all
components. Among various parts, power converters are of a
great importance since they deliver the required power to each
function block of the system. Power converters generally consist
of two main parts: the control part, which is currently available
by means of integrated circuit (IC) technology, and the passive electronics part. Usually, a significant physical volume and
Manuscript received April 30, 2014; revised July 10, 2014 and September 20,
2014; accepted October 31, 2014. Date of publication November 6, 2014; date of
current version April 15, 2015. This work was supported by the DFG Graduate
School Embedded Microsystems under Grant 1103. The work of F. Suarez
Sandoval was supported by the National Council of Science and Technology
(CONACYT, Mexico), and by the General Ministry of International Affairs
of the Secretariat of Public Education (DGRI, SEP, Mexico). The work of V.
Badilita was supported by DFG through Contract BA 4275/2-1. Recommended
for publication by Associate Editor J. A. Cobos.
A. Moazenzadeh, F. Suarez Sandoval, V. Badilita, and U. Wallrabe are
with the Laboratory for Microactuators, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany (e-mail:
ali.moazenzadeh@imtek.uni-freiburg.de; fralett.suarez@imtek.uni-freiburg.de;
vlad.badilita@imtek.de; wallrabe@imtek.uni-freiburg.de).
N. Spengler is with the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany and also with the Laboratory for
Microactuators, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany (e-mail: nils.spengler@imtek.unifreiburg.de).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2014.2368252
0885-8993 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
5089
TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN STATE-OF-THE-ART SOFT MAGNETIC MATERIALS USED FOR MINIATURIZED CORE FABRICATION
Type
Material
Fabrication
Advantages
Disadvantages
Ferrites
NiZn [23]
MnZn [24]
Screen printing
Resistance
Simplicity of fabrication
Saturation magnetization
Relative permeability
Coercivity
Incompatible with MEMS fabrication
Metallic alloys
Electroplating
Sputtering
Saturation magnetization
Relative permeability
Resistance
Limited core thickness
Nanocrystalline
films
CoZrTa [38]
CoZrO [40]
CoFeSiB [39]
Sputtering
Resistance
Saturation magnetization
Relative permeability
Low temperature fabrication
Amorphous
metal ribbons
Metglas 2714
Vitrovac 6025 [8], [46]
Lamination
Etching
Relative permeability
Resistance
Simplicity of fabrication
Low temperature fabrication
Saturation magnetization
Sensitive to external processes
Limited ribbons thickness
5090
Fig. 1. (a) Exploded view of an UT magnetic core microtransformer chip. (b) Fabricated UT Metglas core in this paper compared to the smallest commercially
available Metglas core. The UT core has been placed inside a commercial toroidal core.
TABLE II
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF METGLAS 2714 [49], [50]
Property
Composition
Saturation magnetization
Max DC permeability (cast)
Saturation magnetostriction
Electrical resistivity
Crystallization temperature
Curie temperature
Value
Co6 6 Fe4 Ni1 Si1 5 B1 4
0.57 (T)
> 80 000
< 0.5
142 ( cm)
550 C
225 C
investigated several combinations of the magnetic materials together with nonmetallic elements, e.g., silicon, tantalum, and
oxygen [1], [38][45]. Compared to NiFe, these new composite
core materials offer higher resistance, the same range of saturation magnetization, and lower coercivity [24], [26].
Another type of composite soft magnetic materials are the
cobalt-based amorphous alloys [8], [46]. These alloys are fabricated based on the technology known as melt spinning and
rapid solidification, meaning that the liquid metal composite
gets cooled rapidly when it is poured onto a disc rolling at a
very high speed [20]. As a result of the rapid cooling, the alloys
have an amorphous atomic structure. This disordered structure
of the metal with no phase boundaries yields ultrasoft magnetic
properties with very low coercivity and two to three times higher
resistivity in comparison to crystalline alloys [20], qualifying
them as an appropriate transformer core material for low-power
and high-frequency applications.
In this paper, cobalt-based amorphous magnetic alloy was
used as a core material. 18-m-thick commercially available
Metglas 2714A ribbons were successively laminated to form
the magnetic core. Metglas 2714A was chosen as the core
material for its high permeability, low energy dissipation, and
high resistivity [49], [50]. Metglas is available as a magnetically anisotropic material, makes it appropriate choice for high-
Fig. 3.
5091
2020SI, GF Agie Charmilles), the magnetic stacks were precisely cut into submillimeter core parts [see Fig. 3(c)]. The
cutting direction was chosen so that the easy magnetization axis
of the cores is aligned with their height. EDM cutting has the
advantage of producing good surface quality on the cut edges
while not changing the magnetic or physical properties of the
Metglas alloy. The use of EDM offers an almost unrestricted
way of structuring the laminated magnetic stacks. However,
this method is not applicable to fabricate cylindrical shape posts
and the EDM cut posts cross section are limited to square or
rectangular shapes. Fig. 2 shows the distinct proven methods to
laminate the Metglas layers as well as several cutting techniques
for the laminated stack.
To enable coil winding, the cores were arranged onto a
4 in borosilicate wafer. Borosilicate wafers were chosen to
avoid eddy currents induced in the substrate, hence minimizing
substrate-related losses. The bond pads were made by means of
standard UV lithography. After evaporating the 15 nm/150 nm
Cr/Au seed layer, a 20-m-thick mold for pads and traces was
patterned using AZ-9260 photoresist. A layer of 12 m of gold
was subsequently electroplated on top of the seed layer. In order
to define the bond positions with respect to the microtransformer
cores, 2 m of ma-N 1420 negative tone photoresist was spun
and patterned to structure the alignment marks on the substrate
[see Fig. 3(d)]. The substrate was finally diced into the 8 mm
8 mm chips using a wafer dicing machine (DAD321, Disco).
To enable the magnetic core assembly on the processed
borosilicate substrate, a 1.5 mm-thick paper-based plastic substrate was used as an alignment aid. Square through-holes were
patterned with a UV laser (TruMark 6330, Trumpf) to perfectly
accommodate the posts of the T-shape cores [see Fig. 3(e)]. The
distance between the through-holes was equal to the distance between the landing marks on the borosilicate wafer. Two vacuum
chucks fixed both the borosilicate (top) and the plastic substrate
(bottom) containing the structures to be positioned. Taking advantage of the borosilicate transparency and using precision
moving tables, the plastic substrate was aligned with respect to
the borosilicate substrate [see Fig. 3(f)]. A Z-direction moving
5092
table was used to raise the plastic substrate and bring the T-shape
structures in contact with the borosilicate wafer. Fast adhesive
(4204, Loctite) served as the bonding material. After the adhesive got cured, the plastic substrate was brought down leaving
behind the T-shape structures positioned [see Fig. 3(g)]. After a
short O2 -plasma cleaning step for 2 min, at 40 C, 0.3 mbar and
the power of 1000 W at 2.54 GHz, a modified, automated ballwedge wirebonder (3100plus , ESEC) was employed to wind the
primary and secondary solenoids directly around the post of the
T-structures. The starting height of the coil was set to 600 m
above the surface of the substrate allowing for a precise 100 m
clearance from the horizontal part of the T-structure core. Within
10 s, each solenoid was wound with up to 40 turns of insulated
25-m-thick copper or gold wire [see Fig. 3(h)]. After the winding process, the U-shape structure was positioned following the
same methodology as used for the T-structures, in this way the
microtransformer fabrication being completed [see Fig. 3(i) and
(j)]. Fig. 4 shows a full view of a UT core microtransformer chip
as well as some closeup SEM pictures of the important regions.
IV. CHARACTERIZATION RESULTS
A. Metglas Core Performance
Metglas is a soft magnetic material with ultrahigh dc permeability. However, its permeability is a function of different physical parameters. In order to characterize the high-frequency permeability of the Metglas, a rod-shape (magnetically open-loop)
cubic multilayered core was fabricated with the same process
as mentioned in Section III. The cubic core had the dimensions
of 0.8 mm 0.8 mm 1.2 mm (L W H). A wirebonded
microcoil with seven turns was wound around the post. Another
core with nominal exact shape and dimension as the Metglas
cubic core was fabricated by means of a thick SU-8 lithography
process, which later was wirebonded to realize the same coil
with seven turns. Both coils, the one on the Metglas rod-shape
core and the one on the SU-8 post, were wirebonded using the
2 LC
(1)
(2)
(3)
A demagnetization factor Ndz of a rectangular rod, magnetized along its long axis (z-direction), is found to be as expressed
below [52]:
1
(4)
Ndz =
(2n + 1)
where n is the dimensional ratio of the rectangular rod. Based
on the dimension of the rod-shape Metglas core, the demagnetization factor of the cubic Metglas core is 0.25 [52].
An electrical current I flowing through a coil creates a magnetic flux proportional to the current. The proportional constant is defined as the inductance L of the coil [20]. The inductance of the coil is only a function of its geometry and the
permeability of the surrounding medium. Since in our case,
both the rod-shape Metglas core and the SU-8 core coils were
geometrically identical, we can consider the inductance ratio
of the coils as the effective permeability e of the rod-shape
Metglas core. In order to calculate the relative permeability r
of the Metglas core from its effective permeability, we need to
consider the demagnetization factor of the core [53]:
e (1 Ndz )
.
(5)
r =
1 Ndz e
By substituting the values of the demagnetization factor and
the effective permeability in equation (5), the relative permeability of the rod-shape Metglas core is measured to be 31.57 at
the frequency of 1 MHz. For an ideal closed-loop UT Metglas
5093
Fig. 5. Characterization result of two similar wirebonded coils, one with the rod-shape Metglas core and the other with a SU-8 (magnetically like air) core. (a)
Resonance frequency of the coil with magnetic core was decreased as a result of an increase in the internal inductance and capacitance. (b) Coil inductance has
been increased 4.42 times at the frequency of 1 MHz.
|S21 |2
1 |S11 |2
(6)
where Z0 = 50 is the nominal impedance of the network analyzer which served as the load impedance of the measurements.
By converting the S-parameters to Z-parameters and by extracting the real and imaginary parts of the impedance for each port at
each frequency, the inductance, electrical resistance and quality
factor, as well as the coupling factor of the microtransformers
were calculated using
Lxy =
[Zxy ]
2f
Rxy = [Zxy ]
[Zxy ]
[Zxy ]
[Z12 ] [Z21 ]
.
k=
[Z11 ] [Z22 ]
Qxy =
(7)
5094
Fig. 7.
Fig. 8.
Fig. 11.
Fig. 12.
5095
L1 1 (H)
L2 2 (H)
Q11m ax
Q22m ax
(%)
m a x (%)
Np rim a ry
N1 : N2
Material
@ f (MHz)
Sample 1
@ f (MHz)
Sample 2
1
1
0.320
0.320
< 28
1.11
39.9
37.9
7.1
6.8
97.3
71
40
1:1
Cu
1
1
0.548
0.355
< 55
2.57
3.7
22.1
4.3
6.2
97.1
66
12
1 : 2.5
Au
Fig. 15. Benchmark of the state-of-the-art microtransformers in terms of inductance per dc resistance (L/R D C ) as a function of the frequency at which
the maximum efficiency appears. The size of the bubbles indicates the power
efficiency of each transformer, whereas the color of a bubble distinguishes between air and magnetic core transformers. The label of each bubble represents
the reference, transformer type and coupling factor. The microtransformers presented in this paper are labeled with TW1 and TW2. All the devices except
in [32] and [45] were characterized using a 50 load.
function of the inductance per unit volume (nH/mm3 ) for several miniaturized inductors. The shape of each point indicates
the magnetic material type of each inductor, whereas the color of
each point distinguishes the frequency range where each prototype is applicable. The inductor presented in this paper is labeled
with TW and convinces through its high inductance per unit
volume and reasonably high quality factor. We further benchmarked the microtransformers to previously published devices
5096
Fig. 16.
Fig. 17.
Fig. 19. Characterization of a 2.7 V output synchronous Buck converter operating with an UT microcoil with 12 turns made out of a gold wire with diameter
of 25 m, at a frequency of 0.75 MHz. (a) Efficiency curve for different input
voltages. (b) Percentage of load regulation for different input voltages.
5097
TABLE IV
STATE-OF-THE-ART BUCK CONVERTERS SPECIFICATIONS
Parameter
Item nr.
[57]
Type
f [M Hz]
V i n [V ]
V o [V ]
Po m a x
[W ]
[% ]
@P o m a x
m a x
[% ]
I o [m A] @
m a x
PLOR1 [% ]
PLNR2 [% ]
Power
density
[W/mm3 ]
Commercial
module
0.4
3.3
16
85
95
1200
2.77 @
I o = 3.9 A
0.022
1.5
0.6
1.5
3.3
5
12
1.5
1.5
3.3
12
15
1.65
77
82
82
89
91
82
2000
3000
500
0.6 @
I o = 0.5 A
0.27 @
I o = 3.9 A,
V o = 2.25 V
0.03 @
T = 25 C,
V o = 9.5 V
[58]
[59]
[60]
0.031
0.019
851.6
106
0.6
5.5
3.3
9.9
93.5
93.5
3000
1.6
3.3
0.99
85
85
300
0.002
1.5
5
5
12
1.2
1.2
48
12
85
86
89
87
20,000
60,000
0.9 @
I o = 0.3A
0.041
0.048
5.5
4.2
1.8
1.08
85
88
200
0.51 @
I o = 0.6 A
0.157
0.8
< 5 PFM
5
3.6
2
1.8
0.6
0.6
70
87
80
90
60
200
0.69 @
I o = 0.2 A,
Vo = 3 V
1.8
3.6
92
93.4
140
0.081
100
200
30
200
50
1.2
3.3
3
3.6
3.3
0.95
2.3
1.5
2.2
2
0.18
0.161
0.45
0.730
0.546
83.7
62
62.5
77
68.7
87.5
62
71.7
77
68.7
90
70
120
380
300
9.9 @
I o = 0.2 A
3.57 @
I o = 0.05 A,
V o = 0.5 V
0.009
0.4
0.110
0.075
170
1.2
0.9
0.315
75
77.9
190
0.230
[75]
2.25
2.6
1.2
0.8
48
58
183
0.4
[76]
[77]
[78]
3
660
180
4
2.2
3.3
3
0.8
2.5
1
0.044
0.675
73.7
31
77.9
75
31
80.5
266
55
170
1.98 @
I o = 0.6 A
0.005
0.006
0.2
0.75
3.3
2.7
0.515
62
81.2
85.7
4.63 @
I o = 0.15 A
0.81 @
I o = 0.06 A,
Vo = 2 V
0.724
63
65.3
270
0.6
52
52
225
0.35 @
I o = 0.15 A
1.78 @
I o = 0.15 A
[61]
[62]
Research
module
[63]
[64]
[65]
PwrSiP
product
[66]
[67]
[68]
PwrSiP
research
[69]
[70]
[71]
[72]
[73]
[74]
This work
PwrSoC
research
Research
module
0.108
0.045
0.104
PLOR stands for percentage of load regulation [56] and is defined as PLOR = 100 (V o I o = 0 V o F L )/V o F L ,where V o I o = 0 .is the output voltage of the converter at
zero output current and V o F L is the output voltage at full load (maximum output current).
2
PLNR stands for percent of line regulation [56] and is defined as PLNR = 100 V o /(V o n o m V i n ),where V o is the total variation of the output voltage when the
converter is subjected to the total variation of the input voltage V i n , and V o n o m is the converters nominal output voltage.
1
5098
TABLE V
STATE-OF-THE-ART ISOLATED CONVERTERS SPECIFICATIONS
Parameter
Item nr
[18]
Type
f [M Hz]
Topology
Transformer
volume
[m m 3 ]
Vin
[V ]
Vo
[V ]
Po m a x
[W ]
[% ]
@P o m a x
m a x
[% ]
I o [m A]
@ m a x
PLOR [% ]
PLNR [% ]
Research
module
Half-bridge
With ZVS
Forward
Forward
Resonant
31.24
12
0.5
34
34
100
10
0.819
23
10
6
12
3
1.9
5.5
0.3
0.08
0.66
33
3
49.5
33
3
49.5
100
42
120
0.136
47
55
22.5
37 @
I o = 0.04 A
0.296
62.5
67.2
42
14 @
I o = 0.04 A
0.408
64.2
71
65
11 @
I o = 0.04 A
3.2 @
I o = 0.02 A,
Vo = 1 V
1.2 @
I o = 0.02 A,
Vo = 1 V
0.8 @
I o = 0.02 A,
Vo = 1 V
[79]
[80]
[81]
This work
15
6.5
6
Research
module
1.82
Fly-buck Wire:
Au 25 m
Fly-buck Wire:
Cu 34 m
7.5
Fly-buck Wire:
Cu 100 m
the other two cases of input voltage, because the controller was
set to enter an automatic pulsed frequency modulation (PFM)
mode. In this mode, the IC operates in either PWM or in PFM
mode. When the device is initially powered, it operates in fixed
PWM mode until completion of the soft-start. It remains in this
mode until it senses that the converter is on the verge of breaking
into discontinuous operation. At this point, the controller goes
to sleep mode until the output voltage has decreased by 2%.
The controller then starts again at a fixed PWM frequency for a
short duration and increases the output voltage. If the controller
again senses discontinuous operation, the cycle repeats. Since
the duty cycle in PFM mode is low, all losses are reduced which
results in efficiency improvement at light loads. The two modulation modes are clearly identified in Fig. 19(b) for the three
input voltages.
The percentage of load regulation of the synchronous Buck
converter for an output current change of 150 mA is 4.63%,
0.35% and 1.78% with an input voltage of 3.3, 4, and 5 V, respectively, as summarized in Table IV. As depicted in Fig. 19(b),
with an input voltage of 3.3 V and an output current greater than
140 mA, the efficiency reduces dramatically due to the decrease
in output voltages, leading to the conclusion that a compromise should be made between the overall circuit efficiency and
possible output voltage for load currents greater than 140 mA.
The highest percentage of line regulation that was measured is
0.81%, at a load current of 60 mA and a change in input voltage
from 3 to 5 V.
C. Effects of the Wire Diameter on the Microtransformer:
Impact on the Circuit Efficiency
At the efficiency maxima of the isolated converter, we have
calculated that the ohmic loss in the microtransformer accounts
for 57.5% of the total losses. In order to improve the efficiency
of the converter, as well as to increase the power density of
the microtransformer, we replaced the gold wire of 25 m in
diameter with a hand-wound copper wire with a diameter of
34 m in the first case, and of 100 m in the second case.
The new efficiency curves were measured and are presented in
Fig. 20. Efficiency curve of a 5-V output Fly-buck converter operating with
an UT microtransformer with 12 turns on the primary side and turns ratio of
1:2.5. The transformers were made of wirebonded gold with diameter of 25 m
(), hand-wound copper with diameter of 34 m () and hand-wound copper
with diameter of 100 m ().
TABLE VI
POWER LOSS DISTRIBUTION OF THE FLY-BUCK CONVERTER OPERATING WITH
DIFFERENT WIRE DIAMETERS FOR THE UT MICROTRANSFORMERS
Measured input power [mW]
Measured output power [mW]
Power losses
172.26
94.77
UT transformer [mW]
MOSFETs [mW]
Diode [mW]
Input, primary and output capacitors [mW]
Total [mW]
43.03
22.64
11.25
0.57
77.49
399.61
283.8
[%]
55.53
29.21
14.52
0.74
100
[%]
42.54
37.23
32.5
3.58
115.81
36.7
32.15
28.06
3.09
100
5099
microtransformers generate at 1 MHz 7.4 times more inductance density than the rod-shape core microtransformers previously reported in [14] and 26.7 times more inductance density
than our air core microtransformers reported in [13]. We benchmarked the devices to previously published microinductors and
microtransformers, both from dc and ac performances points
of view, to underline the potential of the technology for power
on-chip applications.
We further investigated how the winding wire diameter influences the system efficiency of the power converters. The power
losses of the microtransformer made from 100-m-thick handwound copper wire account for the 36% of the total loss in the
circuit. This is 19% less than for the microtransformer wound
with the 25-m-thick wirebonded gold wire. These results prove
that if the wirebonder machine is calibrated to wind coils made
of increased wire diameters (>25 m), the system efficiency of
the converters could be even higher than what we have achieved
so far with the hand-wound devices, because the winding precision of this machine also reduces the leakage inductance of our
microtransformers, thus reducing switching losses.
Therefore, adaptation of our wirebonder-based coil winding technique to thicker copper wire appoints to more efficient
magnetic devices, consequently better system efficiency. Moreover, our laboratory style manual pick-and-place assembly of
the magnetic cores can be easily automated by the use of pickand-place machines to push our process toward industrial manufacturing standards.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank S. M. Torres Delgado
(IMTEK, Laboratory of Simulations) for access to electrical
characterization equipment, J. Hempel (IMTEK, Laboratory of
Electrical Instrumentation) for access to probe station, and A.
Gehringer (IMTEK, Laboratory for Process Technology) for
EDM cut of the magnetic cores. They would also like to thank M.
Pauls (IMTEK, Laboratory for Microactuators) and the Gisela
and Erwin Sick Chair for Micro-optics for access to the SEM.
They further acknowledge Prof. D. P. Arnold (University of
Florida) for the valuable technical discussion on the demagnetization effect.
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Fralett Suarez Sandoval was born in Morelia, Michoacan Mexico, in 1988. She received the B.Eng. degree in electronic engineering from the Morelia Institute of Technology, Morelia, Mexico, in 2011, and the
M.Sc. degree in microsystems engineering from the
University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, in 2013.
Since March 2014, she has been working toward the
Ph.D. degree at the Laboratory for Microactuators,
Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK),
University of Freiburg.
Her research interests include power electronics
and wireless power transmission with magnetic microdevices.
Nils Spengler was born in Berlin, Germany. He received the M.S. degree in microsystems engineering
from the University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany,
in 2010. After one-year research at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Palo Alto, CA, USA, he has
been working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Laboratory for Microactuators, Department of Microsystems
Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, since
2011.
5102
Ulrike Wallrabe received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering of microturbines and micromotors from Karlsruhe University, Karlsruhe, Germany,
in 1992.
From 1989 to 2003, she was with the Institute
for Microstructure Technology, Forschungszentrum
Karlsruhe (today KIT), working on microactuators
and optical microelectromechanical systems. She has
been a Professor of microactuators at the Department
of Microsystems Engineering, IMTEK, University of
Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, since 2003. In 2010, she
received an internal fellowship at the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies,
FRIAS. She has published more than 110 papers in the field of microsystems
technology. Her work focus lies in magnetic microstructures including processes
for magnetic materials and microcoils, in adaptive optics, using piezoactuators
to tune elastic lenses and mirrors, and in microenergy harvesting.