Passive components add considerably to the cost of modern monolithic communication systems because of their excessive consumption of chip area (100 times larger than active components) and due to the high count of discrete components. Besides that, many of the techniques in conventional hybrid communication systems have so far been left behind when migrating to integrated solutions, since many of the special materials, used in hybrids, are not yet available in silicon technology. The goal of this proposal is to engineer on-chip ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials to realize compact and innovative radio-frequency/microwave passive components for silicon integrated circuit technology.

A comprehensive study of the properties of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric thin-film materials, engineered for loss reduction and frequency bandwidth improvement, is therefore the central subject of this proposal. Ferromagnetic films consisting of nano-particles or artificial nano-/submicron channels will be developed for high electric resistivity, high saturation magnetization, and large magnetic anisotropy.  Ferroelectric films will be engineered for deposition at low temperature to achieve a large tunability of the dielectric constant and to reduce the losses. Reliable and cost-effective integration of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric devices in standard silicon technology is another goal of this project. The on-chip ferromagnetic and ferroelectric non-reciprocal and tunable components will likely be demonstrated in this project for the first time.

The passive components developed in this project cover a wide range of applications in the radio frequency and microwave wired and wireless communications. Such devices will significantly enhance the process technology in the aim on the single-chip RF transceiver. It can be expected that the communication industry will considerably benefit from this additional technological capability. Furthermore, some knowledge generated in this project may be of benefit for developments in ferroelectric and magnetic memory technologies and other relevant research subjects.