STTR Phase I: Wafer-Integrated Soft Magnetic Composite Films for Inductors with High Power Density and Efficiency

STTR 第一阶段：用于高功率密度和效率电感器的晶圆集成软磁复合薄膜

• 批准号: 2304631
• 负责人: Uppili Sridhar
• 金额: $ 27.5万
• 依托单位: Himet Materials LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2304631&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Wafer; Integrated; Soft

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to revolutionize the miniature-powered Integrated Circuit (IC) converter market, widely used in cellular phones, Internet of Things devices, and microsensors. The technology will provide form factor reductions of various modules, leading to the further miniaturization of on-chip components. A manufacturing facility can service several IC companies by providing foundry capabilities to integrate inductors according to each customer’s design. The technology can provide US manufacturers of such devices with a significant competitive edge in the very large mobile electronics and miniature electronics markets both in commercial and defense markets. Establishing manufacturing capability in the US will support a revival of component packaging and back-end integration business. Mobile device miniaturization is increasing at a rapid rate. In on-board power converters, passive components such as inductors and capacitors are among the largest components. The non-availability of IC-compatible, low-cost, soft magnetic cores with low loss, high frequency (10MHz), and high saturation magnetization limits the implementation of on-chip inductors. The project aims to create innovative, soft magnetic composite (SMC) materials for inductor cores. IC-compatible high-performance SMC films, with thicknesses that can be scaled to 50 microns and above without losing performance, will be developed for the first time. The project's initial goal will be to develop physical and electrochemical synthesis methodologies for high magnetic moment, low loss, SMC materials that can be used to fabricate on-chip inductors, replacing ferrite core-based inductors in circuits. The approach can be scaled to handle different ranges of power and can be integrated on wafers, package substrates, or boards. These cores will enable inductor thickness to be reduced by at least 10 times for use in low form factor, point-of-use, direct current (DC) to DC power converters and IC voltage regulator circuitry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该小型企业技术转让 (STTR) 第一阶段项目的更广泛/商业影响是彻底改变微型供电集成电路 (IC) 转换器市场，该技术将提供广泛应用于蜂窝电话、物联网设备和微传感器的技术。各种模块的外形尺寸减小，从而使片上组件进一步小型化，制造工厂可以通过提供代工能力来根据每个客户的设计集成电感器，从而为多家 IC 公司提供服务。在商业和国防市场的超大型移动电子和微型电子市场中具有显着的竞争优势，在美国建立制造能力将支持元件封装和后端集成业务的复兴，移动设备小型化正在快速增长。在板载电源转换器中，电感器和电容器等无源元件是最大的元件之一，缺乏具有低损耗、高频（10MHz）和高饱和度的IC兼容、低成本软磁芯。磁化限制了片上电感器的实施，该项目旨在为电感器芯创建创新的软磁复合材料 (SMC)，其厚度可以扩展到 50 微米及以上而不会丢失。该项目的最初目标是开发可用于制造片上电感器的高磁矩、低损耗SMC材料的物理和电化学合成方法，以取代片上电感器。该方法可以扩展以处理不同的功率范围，并且可以集成在晶圆、封装基板或电路板上，这些磁芯将使电感器厚度减少至少 10 倍，以便在低功耗环境中使用。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和技术进行评估，被认为值得支持。更广泛的影响审查标准。