EPSCoR Research Fellows: NSF: Wafer-Scale Fabrication and Packaging of Magnetic Planar Inductors on Silicon Carbide for Extreme- Environment Microelectronics

This Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) EPSCoR Research Fellows project provides a fellowship to an Assistant Professor and training for a graduate student at Boise State University. This work is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Alan Mantooth and Dr. David Huitink at the University of Arkansas. Through the fellowship, the PI will develop compact inductors with magnetic cores that can operate reliably at high temperatures. Magnetic inductors integrated with silicon carbide electronics play a crucial role in reducing the size and cooling needs of power converters used in energy and propulsion systems. This project will use foundations in materials science and electrical engineering to study how materials, fabrication methods, packaging and high-temperature exposure affect inductor performance and reliability. It will also establish new fabrication and testing capabilities at Boise State and expand student research opportunities. These efforts prepare Idaho’s workforce in high-temperature microelectronics for applications in energy, transportation, defense and scientific exploration. This project will advance fabrication and packaging design rules for thermally-stable magnetic core inductors integrated with silicon carbide for on-chip power converters that can operate beyond 300 °C. The intellectual merit of this project lies in developing a back-end-of-the-line process in silicon carbide platforms to integrate thermally-robust thin-film magnetic materials, followed by ceramic packaging to mitigate temperature-driven degradation in the electrical and magnetic performance. The research approach will quantify how elevated temperature, thermal cycling, and self-heating affect thermo–mechanical, –electrical and –magnetic properties that govern inductance and the quality factor. The fellowship will strengthen research infrastructure by expanding faculty and student expertise in advanced fabrication and packaging methods, and enabling transfer of process flows and high-frequency high-power test methods to shared-user facilities at Boise State University. Project activities will support faculty workshops and curriculum development in extreme environment microelectronics, and accelerate Idaho’s research capacity through national collaboration. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.