Flip chip assembled MEMS inductors

High performance suspended MEMS inductors produced using a flip chip assembly approach are described. An inductor structure is fabricated on a carrier and then flip chip assembled onto a substrate to form a suspended inductor for RF-IC applications with significant improvement in Q-factor and frequency of operation over the conventional IC inductors. A spiral MEMS inductor has been successfully produced on a silicon substrate with an air gap of 26 /spl mu/m between the inductor structure and the substrate. The inductance of the device was measured to be /spl sim/2 nH and a maximum Q-factor of 19 at /spl sim/2.5 GHz was obtained after pad/connector de-embedding.