See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/224541793

Gigahertz frequency tunable noise suppressor using nickel nanorod arrays and
Permalloy films

Article  in  Journal of Applied Physics · May 2009

DOI: 10.1063/1.3072824 · Source: IEEE Xplore

CITATIONS READS
24 88

6 authors, including:

Bijoy Kuanr Ryan Marson

Jawaharlal Nehru University University of Michigan
166 PUBLICATIONS   1,244 CITATIONS    28 PUBLICATIONS   420 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Sanjay R Mishra Zbigniew Celinski

The University of Memphis University of Colorado Colorado Springs
234 PUBLICATIONS   3,171 CITATIONS    39 PUBLICATIONS   299 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

detection of water contaminants by plasmonic nanoparticles View project

Synthesis and characterisation of magnetite iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and their effects on neuronal survival and cognitive functions. View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Bijoy Kuanr on 01 June 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 105, 07A520 共2009兲

Gigahertz frequency tunable noise suppressor using nickel nanorod arrays

and Permalloy films
Bijoy K. Kuanr,1,a兲 Ryan Marson,2 Sanjay R. Mishra,2 Alka V. Kuanr,3 R. E. Camley,1 and
Z. J. Celinski1
1
Center for Magnetism and Magnetic Nanostructures, UCCS, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80918, USA
2
Department of Physics, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee 38152, USA
3
Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Science for Women, University of Delhi, Vivek Vihar, Delhi,
110095 India
共Presented 12 November 2008; received 11 October 2008; accepted 26 November 2008;
published online 17 March 2009兲
To suppress noise in electronic devices at gigahertz frequencies, the signal attenuation in the
pass-band frequency region must be minimized to enhance the signal integrity without distortion.
We designed, fabricated, and evaluated two noise suppression microstructures, one using nickel
nanorod arrays in a porous anodic aluminum oxide dielectric and a second structure based on a
Ni80Fe20 共Permalloy兲 film in a microstrip waveguide geometry. Both noise suppression structures
function as tunable devices in the microwave range. The devices show signal attenuation at the
resonance frequency which is increased more than ⫺20 dB compared with a microstrip line without
any magnetic material. At ferromagnetic resonance the power loss in the nanorod structure was 15%
higher than that of a Permalloy based device. In the pass-band frequency region the signal
attenuation/insertion loss of the nanorod arrays was about 2 dB higher than that of the Permalloy
film. It is observed that to get good noise suppression, the signal distortion due to the signal phase
shift must also be minimized. The differential phase shift of the Ni nanorod device was ⬃20%
smaller than that of the Permalloy film device. We also designed noise suppressors using Ni
nanorods by changing aspect ratios 共rod lengths of 5 – 50 ␮m and diameter of 200 nm兲. The noise
suppression frequency and the magnitude of signal attenuation in the noise suppressor were
increased as the Py element became thicker. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.
关DOI: 10.1063/1.3072824兴

I. INTRODUCTION high frequency characteristics due to the demagnetizing ef-

fects produced by the high aspect ratio of the rods. Further-
A steady tendency in electronics technology is the con- more, there is a reduction in eddy current losses by the sepa-
tinued increase in the operational frequency and degree of ration of metallic magnetic materials by an insulator. In
integration.1–3 For example, extremely compact wireless previous devices the absorption was very low1–4 due to the
communications devices currently have an operational fre- large separation between the CPW line and the magnetic
quency in the gigahertz range. With this technical develop- element. The main aim of the present work was to solve this
ment, problems related to electromagnetic noise, among problem by integrating a magnetic thin film onto the trans-
many others, need to be solved. Magnetic materials have mission line and to enhance the signal attenuation using a
played an important role in addressing this problem until microstrip line 共MSL兲 geometry 共see Fig. 2兲 instead of a
now. A noise suppressor is 共Fig. 1兲 basically a transmission CPW. In our geometry the magnetic materials are integrated
line3–6 which has a pass-band region that covers the signal just below the signal line. The frequency of the attenuation
frequency range and a stop-band region which blocks the dip can be controlled by an external magnetic field,7 H.
higher order noise harmonics. The signal attenuation in the
pass-band frequency region must be minimized to enhance
the signal integrity without introducing signal distortion. Pre-
vious device structures consisted1,4 of a coplanar waveguide
共CPW兲 covered with a ferrite thin film or ferromagnetic film.
In these types of noise suppressors, unwanted noises 共usually
harmonics in power circuits兲 are absorbed by driving the
system to ferromagnetic resonance 共FMR兲.
To reduce the insertion loss due to eddy current losses in
the pass-band frequency region and to increase the operating
frequency up to a few gigahertz, one can use a magnetic
nanorod 共NR兲 array in a dielectric matrix. This enhances the

a兲
Electronic mail: bkkuanr@yahoo.com. FIG. 1. The noise suppressor schematic of operation.

0021-8979/2009/105共7兲/07A520/3/$25.00 105, 07A520-1 © 2009 American Institute of Physics

Downloaded 26 Mar 2009 to 128.198.17.16. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/jap/copyright.jsp
07A520-2 Kuanr et al.
FIG. 2. Microstrip geometry for Py-based 共top兲 and Ni-NR-based 共bottom兲
noise suppressors.
II. EXPERIMENT
The noise suppressors were made using either Ni-NR
filled alumina matrices or Permalloy based magnetic films
in microstrip geometry. The suppressors were composed
of Si共wafer兲 / Cu共2 ␮m兲 / Al2O3 + Ni共nanorod兲共dielectric
50 ␮m兲 / Cu共2 ␮m兲 and Si共wafer兲 / Cu共2 ␮m兲 / SiO2共di-
electric 3.5 ␮m兲 / NiFe共50– 200 nm film兲 / Cu共2 ␮m兲 共see
Fig. 2兲. The reason to have the magnetic film directly below
the upper signal line is that the oscillating magnetic field is
strongest at this position. This leads to greater absorption at
the FMR frequency. The Permalloy film 共4␲ M s ⬃ 10 kOe兲,
SiO2, and Cu were deposited by sputtering, whereas the
Ni-NRs were electrodeposited7 into the porous alumina ma-
trix. The diameter 共D兲 and length 共L兲 of the NRs used were
200 nm and 5 – 50 ␮m, respectively. We patterned the struc-
tures by photolithography and then dry etched to obtain the
required strip widths and lengths for the devices. The used
microstrip lines have a width of 12 ␮m and a length of
3 mm. The signal attenuation of the transmission line was
determined by extracting S-parameters 共S11 and S21兲 from
network analyzer measurements.7
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The transmission characteristics S11 and S21 were mea-
sured for the MSL with and without the magnetic material in
the frequency range of 0.5– 70 GHz. The magnetic field was
applied along the signal line. Figure 3共a兲 shows transmission
共S21兲 at 4 kOe applied magnetic field for three structures
关nonmagnetic, Py film 共200 nm兲, and Ni-NR 共D = 200 nm兲兴.
The attenuation at resonance was increased from ⫺0.5 dB
for the nonmagnetic MSL to ⫺20 to ⫺25 dB for the mag-
netic devices. The resonance dip is of great use for suppress-
ing the noise at frequencies higher than the main signal. The
observed shift in frequency is due to two factors: different
values of saturation magnetization for Ni and Py and the
different values of the demagnetizing factors for the Ni-NR
and the Py-film structures. In NR-MSL the resonance is
Downloaded 26 Mar 2009 to 128.198.17.16. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/jap/copyright.jsp
J. Appl. Phys. 105, 07A520 共2009兲
FIG. 3. 共Color online兲 Transmission response 共a兲 magnitude and 共b兲 phase
of Ni-NR and Permalloy based microstrip suppressors at a 4 kOe applied
magnetic field.
much broader than Py-MSL. The broader resonance curve is
due to inhomogeneous demagnetizing fields leading to the
broad FMR line.
In the pass-band frequency region around 5 GHz, the
insertion loss for both suppressors is larger than the insertion
loss for the nonmagnetic MSL. The NR-based microstrip
structure has about 1.5 dB more loss than the Py-based mi-
crostrip device. The loss is higher in the Ni-NR structure
primarily because there is more magnetic material in this
device. This may be due to mismatched impedance. The in-
sertion loss can be decreased by adjusting the characteristic
impedance of the transmission line. The characteristic im-
pedance is different for Py-MSL and NR-MSL because the
dielectric constants for alumina and SiO2 are different 共11
and 3.8兲. As we used the same width for the signal line we
got different impedances which would lead to different re-
flectivities.
Without the magnetic film, the measured attenuation in
the MSL is only ⫺2 dB up to 60 GHz, as shown in Fig. 3共a兲.
The 兩S21兩 increased whereas 兩S11兩 decreased with the intro-
duction of a magnetic material in the MSL, implying a re-
duction in the transmittance as well as an increase in reflec-
tance. The reflected signal 共S11兲 over the whole pass-band
region is very small, being less than ⫺20 dB in all cases. At
the stop-band region the reflected signal and the attenuation
become higher. This is the origin of microwave noise sup-
pression by the system. The degree of noise suppression is
measured by the normalized power loss 共Ploss / Pin兲 and was
obtained by using the equation1–4
Ploss/Pin = 1 − 共兩S21兩2 − 兩S11兩2兲. 共1兲
It is observed that the power loss is very low in the
pass-band frequencies, but achieved a maximum value at
stop-band frequency. Using Eq. 共1兲 it is observed that the
07A520-3 Kuanr et al.
power loss of the NR-MSL is 85% at FMR 共12 GHz at H
= 4 kOe兲 which was higher than that of the 200 nm thick
Py-MSL 共68%兲. Since the stop-band frequencies of our de-
vices are tunable by applying a static magnetic field, our
noise suppressors are tunable. The degree of noise suppres-
sion of the MSL is proportional to the intrinsic properties of
the system, such as conductivity and magnetic permeability.
Figure 3共b兲 depicts the observed transmitted phase of the
MSL devices. The differential phase shift of the Ni-NR de-
vice was ⬃20% smaller than that of the Permalloy film de-
vice. For the best noise suppression device characteristics,
the signal distortion due to the signal phase shift should be
minimized.
Figure 4共a兲 depicts the magnetic field variation in the
suppression frequencies as a function of the static field for
both magnetic structures. For the Py device, f res is governed
by the demagnetizing field due to the dimensions of the mag-
netic element 共ribbon兲 and is given by
f res = 共␥/2␲兲冑H + 共NX − NZ兲4␲ M S + 共NY − NZ兲4␲ M S .
NX, NY , and NZ are the demagnetizing coefficients and ␥ is
the gyromagnetic ratio. For the geometry we have used for
NR-based MSL—field perpendicular to the rod axis— the
relations are as follows:7
共f res兲⬜ = 冉 冊冑
␥
2␲
共Heff
2
− H 2兲 where H ⬍ Heff
and
共f res兲⬜ = 冉 冊冑
␥
2␲
共H − Heff兲H where H ⬎ Heff .
The effective field can be expressed as Heff = 2␲ M S共1 – 2P兲,
where P is the filling factor. For an isolated rod P = 0 and for
a continuous film P = 1. For our structure, the filling factor
P = 2␲r2 / 冑3S2 is ⬃0.13, where r is the NR radius and S is
the inter-rod distance. The dipolar field can be written as
Hd = −4␲ M S P. The solid lines in Fig. 4共a兲 are the calculated
frequencies using Eqs. 共2兲 and 共3兲 with appropriate demag-
netizing factors.
The noise suppression frequency and the magnitude of
the signal attenuation in the gigahertz noise suppressors can
be controlled by the change in dimensions of the magnetic
structure. The magnitude of the transmission signal was in-
creased as the magnetic film/NRs became longer and thicker.
The noise suppression frequency decreases with the increase
in NR length 关Fig. 4共b兲兴. The present study indicates that for
NR assemblies with strong dipolar interactions, the effective
demagnetizing field depends on the aspect ratio. For strongly
interacting rods the demagnetizing factor decreases as the
length of the rods increases, thus decreasing the resonance
frequency.
With increasing thickness of the magnetic films from 50
to 200 nm, the magnitude of the signal attenuation at FMR is
greatly increased from ⫺15 to ⫺22 dB at H = 4 kOe. This is
due to the increase in the volume of the magnetic material.
The resonance frequencies are also increased from 18 to 20.5
Downloaded 26 Mar 2009 to 128.198.17.16. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://jap.aip.org/jap/copyright.jsp
View publication stats
J. Appl. Phys. 105, 07A520 共2009兲
共2兲 FIG. 4. 共Color online兲 共a兲 Magnetic field dependence of the resonance fre-
quency for NR and Permalloy film based devices. The solid lines to experi-
mental data were derived from Eqs. 共2兲 and 共3兲. 共b兲 The resonance frequency
as a function of NR length 共D = 200 nm兲 and Py-film thickness at 4 kOe
field.
GHz 关left scale, Fig. 4共b兲兴. The agreement between the cal-
共3a兲
culated and measured FMR frequencies is within +10%
when the change in the demagnetizing factors with the
change in thickness/length of the magnetic film/NR is prop-
erly accounted for.
共3b兲 IV. CONCLUSION
Due to the good noise attenuation characteristics and
high resonance frequencies above 10 GHz, the presented in-
tegrated devices can be considered as good electromagnetic
noise suppressors in devices such as mobile phones. The
studied devices have an additional important advantage since
the resonance frequency can be tuned during the operation
by applying an external magnetic field. The NR-based de-
vices are found to have better noise suppression characteris-
tics over the ferromagnetic metallic films 共Py兲 based MSL
due to their broader bandwidth, higher absorption capabili-
ties, and lesser differential phase shift. The device frequen-
cies are in agreement with the FMR relation, taking into
account the demagnetization coefficients.
1
M. Yamaguchi, K.-H. Kim, T. Kuribara, and K.-I. Arai, IEEE Trans.
Magn. 38, 3183 共2002兲.
2
K. H. Kim, M. Yamaguchi, K. I. Arai, H. Nagura, and S. Ohnuma, J. Appl.
Phys. 93, 8002 共2003兲.
3
K. H. Kim, M. Yamaguchi, S. Ikeda, and K. I. Arai, IEEE Trans. Magn.
39, 3031 共2003兲.
4
K. H. Kim, M. Yamaguchi, K. I. Arai, N. Matsushita, and M. Abe, Trans.
Magn. Soc. Jpn. 3, 133 共2003兲.
5
S. Yoshida, H. Ono, S. Ando, F. Tsuda, T. Ito, Y. Shimada, M. Yamaguchi,
K. I. Arai, S. Ohnuma, and T. Masumoto, IEEE Trans. Magn. 37, 2401
共2001兲.
6
K. H. Kim, S. Ohnuma, and M. Yamaguchi, IEEE Trans. Magn. 40, 2838
共2004兲.
7
R. L. Marson, B. K. Kuanr, S. R. Mishra, R. E. Camley, and Z. Celinski,
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 25, 2619 共2007兲.