Reducing the size of Point of Load (PoL) DC-DC converters is strongly required for modern electronic systems as they occupy a large portion of the system footprint. Besides increasing the switching frequency to reduce the inductor size, integrating the inductor into a package or chip is also very effective and has been intensely researched. This paper introduces recent progress on the heterogeneous integration of magnetic components (inductors) and integrated circuits for DC-DC converters and also introduces a three-dimensional (3D)-integrated buck converter implemented on an interposer with an embedded magnetic core inductor developed by our group. A fully closed magnetic circuit spiral inductor inside a build-up layer is formed with a low-cost lamination process using epoxy/magnetic-filler composite sheets. The 3D-integrated DC-DC buck converter has a small footprint, 86 efficiency at a 20-MHz switching frequency, and fast load response.
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