Engineers roll up their sleeves -- and then do same with inductors
Thursday, December 13, 2012 - 18:30
in Physics & Chemistry
On the road to smaller, high-performance electronics, researchers have smoothed one speed bump by shrinking a key, yet notoriously large element of integrated circuits. Three-dimensional rolled-up inductors have a footprint more than 100 times smaller without sacrificing performance. The research team used industry-standard two-dimensional processing to pattern metal lines on a very thin dielectric film before rolling, creating a spiral inductor.