Characterization of through glass via (TGV) RF inductors

摘要

RF passive components continue to play an important role in the RF front-end of modern mobile phones. Glass substrate is a good candidate for integrated passive device (IPD) due to its low profile and superior RF performance thanks to low dielectric loss, loss dissipation factor and high resistivity of glass substrate. The quality factor of planar spiral inductors in IPD normally can achieve 50, but it is not enough for certain high-end products. By adopting through glass via (TGV), the inductor can be formed as a 3D solenoid inductor and hence the quality factor can be improved due to the large inductor core. The design, simulation, and actual measurement of TGV inductors are demonstrated in this paper. The quality factor of inductors in a very compact size can achieve 70~100 depending on inductance value in this work.