  The demand on mobile electronics to continue to shrink in size while increase
in efficiency drives the demand on the internal passive components to do the
same. Power amplifiers require inductors with small form factors, high quality
factors, and high operating frequency in the single-digit GHz range. This work
explores the use of magnetic materials to satisfy the needs of power amplifier
inductor applications. This paper discusses the optimization choices regarding
material selection, device design, and fabrication methodology. The inductors
achieved here present the best performance to date for an integrated magnetic
core inductor at high frequencies with a 1 nH inductance and peak quality
factor of 4 at ~3 GHz. Such compact inductors show potential for efficiently
meeting the need of mobile electronics in the future.
