A combinational inductor, which can be constructed on a surface of a semiconductor substrate or an isolator, is provided. The combinational inductor includes several spiral inductors which are connected together in series. The spiral inductors can be constructed on the same layer to produce a combinational inductor structure, because of the same metalization process used. In another aspect, connecting methods between neighboring spiral conductors include forward cascade and reverse cascade. A spiral conductor has at least one neighboring spiral conductor which is connected with it in reverse cascade. The inductance per unit square measurement of the inductor in series can be significantly increased through the connections between neighboring spiral conductors either in forward cascade or reverse cascade.
A tunable inductor is disclosed. The tunable inductor comprises a helical or spiral inductor formed on a semiconductor substrate having an input and an output. The helical inductor has a full length that provides a full inductance. Also, a full inductance switch is disposed between the output and the full length of the helical inductor. Finally, at least one microelectromechanical (MEMS) switch is disposed between the output and an intermediate location of the helical inductor.
Each coil of a transformer is partitioned into two or more parallel segments. The multiple segments of each coil are interleaved with each other to form a coplanar interleaved transformer that has a greater coupling efficiency than a non-segmented coplanar interleaved transformer. In a preferred embodiment, the multiple segments are of reduced width, so that the interleaved coils consume substantially the same area as the non-segmented coplanar interleaved transformer, thereby maintaining the same inductance as the non-segmented transformer. To provide for maximum efficiency, each segment of each coil is embodied so as to have substantially equal length as each other segment of the coil.
A side-by-side coil inductor includes a first coil comprising a plurality of conductive first coil segments positioned one above another and connected in series. A second coil includes a plurality of conductive second coil segments positioned above one another and connected together in series. The first and second coil are in side-by-side position relative to one another and are connected together in series. Each of the first and second coil are approximately circular or square in configuration and the total configuration of the two coils is rectangular.
