On-chip intercalated-graphene inductors for next-generation radio frequency electronics

Abstract

On-chip metal inductors that revolutionized radio frequency electronics in the 1990s suffer from an inherent limitation in their scalability in state-of-the-art radio frequency integrated circuits. This is because the inductance density values for conventional metal inductors, which result from magnetic inductance alone, are limited by the laws of electromagnetic induction. Here, we report inductors made of intercalated graphene that uniquely exploit the relatively large kinetic inductance and high conductivity of the material to achieve both small form-factors and high inductance values, a combination that has proved difficult to attain so far. Our two-turn spiral inductors based on bromine-intercalated multilayer graphene exhibit a 1.5-fold higher inductance density, leading to a one-third area reduction, compared to conventional inductors, while providing undiminished Q-factors of up to 12. This purely material-enabled technique provides an attractive solution to the longstanding scaling problem of on-chip inductors and opens an unconventional path for the development of ultra-compact wireless communication systems.