Embedded magnetics for power system on chip (PSoC).

A novel concept of on-chip bondwire inductors and transformers with ferrite epoxy glob coating is proposed, offering a cost effective approach to realize power systems on chip (PSoC) or System-in-Package (PSiP). The concept has been investigated both experimentally and with finite element modeling. Improvement in total inductance is demonstrated for multi-turn bondwire inductors over single bondwire inductors. The inductance and Q factor can be further boosted with coupled multi-turn inductor concept. Transformer parameters including self- and mutual inductance, and coupling factors are extracted from both modeled and measured S-parameters. More importantly, the bondwire magnetic components can be easily integrated into SoC manufacturing processes with minimal changes to the layout, and open enormous possibilities for realizing cost-effective, high current, high efficiency PSoC's or PSiP's. The design guidelines for single bondwire inductors as well as multi-turn inductors are discussed step by step in several chapters. Not only is the innovated concept for bondwire inductor with ferrite ink presented, but also the practical implementation and design rules are given. With all the well defined steps, people who want to use these bondwire inductors with ferrite ink in their PSoC research or products will find it as simple as using commercial inductors. Last but not least, the PSoC concept using a bondwire inductor is demonstrated by building the prototype of dc-dc buck converter IC as well as the whole package. IC and the whole function block are tested and presented in this work.