Thikness Dependance Investigation of the Mutual

Inductance Link in Concentric Planar Transformers

Hala Ghadhab, Mohamed Hadj Said, Fares Tounsi,
Brahim Mezghani
EMC research Group, National Engineering School of Sfax,
University of Sfax, BP 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
Tel: +216-74274409; Fax: +216-74275595
Correspondence e-mail: fares.tounsi@isimsf.rnu.tn

AbstractIn this paper, we present a new analytic approach

for the calculation of the mutual inductance between two
concentric planar conductors. From this study, we aim to prove
that coil thickness has a minor impact on mutual inductance
value. This study will help to determine a simplified adapted
expression of the induced voltage output at our electrodynamic
microphone ends. This micromachined new sensor exploits the
concentric transformer principle which relies on the use of two
planar inductors: an outer fixed one and an inner suspended one.
If the outer is biased, a mutual inductance link will be generated.
This link strongly depends on inductors coil design geometry and
the induced output voltage. The present work proves that for
long conductors (large number of turns), coil thicknesses above
6m will have no significant influence on mutual inductance
values. This has been proven by an increase of only 0.01% if coil
thickness reaches as high as 20 m. Moreover, for thicknesses
under 2m, mutual inductance value is constant arround 7.2H.
This allows the use of much simpler expressions, with no
thickness dependence, to evaluate mutual inductance values.
Index Terms Analytic modeling, Mutual inductance, MEMS
sensor, electrodynamic transduction, Planar Transformer.

I.

INTRODUCTION

The microelectronics revolution has led to Microsystems

technologies or MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems)
which combines semiconductor microelectronic processes
with bulk and/or surface micromachining techniques [1]. This
emerging technology permits the realization of complete
systems on a single chip for microsensors and microactuators
applications [2,3]. Integrated planar transformers are quite
useful for MEMS applications mainly in order to transfer
energy between two circuits, such us pacemakers, soft
switching and resonant power converters [4,5]. Moreover, it
can be used also as a transduction technique to convert
mechanical force (or pressure) into an electrical signal [6].
Thus, in planar transformers, the mutual inductance coefficient
between primary and secondary coils is a key parameter that
has to be optimized in order to enhance the inductive link
coefficient between both inductor coils. The targeted
application is a microsensor which uses this electrodynamic

Sandeep G. Surya, 2V. Ramgopal Rao

Centre for Research in Nanotechnology and Science

2
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay 400076, India
Tel: +91-222 576 7456; Fax: +91-222 572 3707

transduction technique to detect the acoustic pressure. The

idea consists on the use of two planar inductors: fixed outer
one on the substrate and suspended inner one on top of a
suspended membrane on a micromachined cavity. When the
primary inductor is biased using a DC or AC current, a mutual
inductance linkage will be generated between the primary and
secondary coils. The vibration of the suspended membrane,
along with the inner inductor, will lead to a variation in the
mutual inductance. This phenomenon gives rise to an induced
output voltage at the ends of the secondary. This voltage will
be proportional to the membrane fluctuation amplitude caused
by the incident acoustic wave [7,8]. The objective of this paper
is firstly to determine the mutual inductance linkage between
both planar inductors forming our microsensor. Then,
secondly investigate the inductors coil thickness effect on the
mutual inductance. We will clearly show that coil thickness
has no significant effect on mutual inductance values. This
will be done using different methods described in literature
and adapted to our DUT and then a comparison will be given
between different evaluated results.
The paper is organized as follows: we will start by
presenting the inductors arrangement in the proposed
microsensor and intended fabrication process. Thereafter, we
will evaluate the mutual inductance in halt position using
different methods. The coil thickness will be the main
comparison parameter in our developed theory. Finally, results
will be discussed and a comparison will be given.
II.

PLANAR TRANSFORMER INTRODUCTION

Fig. 1 shows the inductors arrangement in our acoustic

microsensor [8]. Since only the primary inductor is actuated
by a DC current, the mutual inductance will be constant and
the flux caused by the outer inductor through the inner one is
given by 12 = MI1, where I1 is the biasing current and M
denotes the constant magnetic link between both inductors
corresponding to a separation of (see Fig. 1). In a previous
work [7], we did demonstrate that the mutual inductance
produced between two planar square inductors, with n spirals
each, is the same obtained from the superposition of n single

spirals having the inductor's average diameter with an average

spacing a (see Fig. 1). So, all proposed calculation methods
will simply use the above assumption to evaluate the mutual
inductance and multiply the result by n2. Moreover, since a
square inductance design is symmetric on both x and y axis,
we can simply evaluate the mutual between two unequal
straight conductors as show in Fig. 2. Finally, the resulting
mutual expression will be multiplied by 4, which leads to a
total coefficient of 4n1n2, where n1 and n2 represent the
number of turns of the primary and secondary inductors,
respectively. For mutual inductance evaluation, the used
dimensions applied to the stacked transformer are shown in
TABLE I. Both coils width is set to the smallest value possible
in order to put them as close as possible to each other.

placed on a hot plate (180 C for 5 minutes) to soft bake.

Thereafter, the wafer was loaded on the Raith150 using 90
A/cm2 current dose; 22.844 mm/s beam speed, 40 nm
resolution, 1000 m write field and 10kV voltage. Finally, the
PMMA was developed by placing the wafer in a beaker with
Methyl Isobutyl Ketone MIBK:IPA 1:3 for 30 seconds. The
used ratio offers an optimal developing speed. Next, the wafer
was placed in a different breaker containing IPA propanol for
approximately 15 minutes with periodic agitation or until the
smallest features became visible. In Fig. 3, we show a SEM
photograph of both inductors after development (Fig. 3a) and
after lift-off operation using acetone and IPA propanol and
metal deposition (Fig. 3b).

Fig. 1. Magnetic interaction between two inductors in the concentric planar

transformers.
(a)

Fig. 2. Magnetic interaction between two conductors with different lengths.

TABLE I. ADOPTED DIMENSIONS OF BOTH MICROSENSOR INDUCTORS.
Inductors design parameters
Average inductors separation (a)
Outer inductor average length (a)
Number of turns (n1 and n2)
Coils width (w)
Coils thickness (t)

Value
113 m
1648 m
50 turns
2 m
variable

In the next section, we will present the technology

available at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
(IITB), which was used for the fabrication process of our
inductors. The actual fabrication was carried out in the Centre
of Excellence in Nanoelectronics within the IITB.

(b)
Fig. 3. SEM photograph of inductors (a) after development, (b) after lift-off
process and metal deposition.

The caracterization of our prototype will be done at a later

stage. This will enable us to measure not only output induced
voltage under different biasing modes but also under variable
incident acoustic pressures. These experimental values will be
exploited to validate the developed model expressions of the
mutual inductance values.
B. Induced voltage evaluation

A. Fabrication process of the planar transformer

The planar inductors were fabricated by the Electron Beam
Lithography technique using Raith150 equipement. Due to the
required minimum feature for inductors (~2 m), the shape
paterning using lazer writer (lithography laser) was not
possible. Therefore, EBL was used in our case. We started by
the deposition, using spin coating (3000 RPM for 50 seconds),
of 250 nm of PMMA (Polymethyl Methacrylate) on top of our
wafer which already contains 200 nm-film of SiO2. It is then

The estimated induced voltage expressions will be derived

in this section. The study will be done when the outer fixed
inductor is biased by a DC current and using a mutual
inductance analytic approach. The coupling design between
both inductors occupying distinct regions, as shown in Fig. 1,
represents a concentric planar transformer structure (Fig. 4).

2
a

a a
a
Q ln
1
GMD 2
GMD

Fig. 4. Magnetic interaction in a concentric planar transformer structure.

Induced voltage conponents are strongly time dependent

on the current passing through the external inductor.
Generally, the induced voltage expression is given by:

v2
III.

d12
dI
dM
M 1 I1
dt
dt
dt

w2
lnGMD lnw a

2
12w a
w4
w6

4
6
60w a 168w a

MUTUAL INDUCTANCE CALCULATION

A. Formulas without thickness dependance

In this section, the used method depend only on the length
of the conductors assuming that all other parameters are
negligible compared to the length. To adapt expressions from
literature to our DUT, original parameters were replaced with
our set of parameters throughout calculations.
1) Grovers mutual inductance formula
Grover method is useful for the mutual inductance
calculation between two parallel conductors with no thickness
effect parameter. Thus, the mutual inductance Ma,a-2a between
two parallel segments with lengths a and (a-2a) can be
determined by the following [9]:

M a a 2 a M a a M a

(5)

w8
w10

...
8
10
360w a 660w a

2) Neumanns mutual inductance formula

The mutual inductance Mf between two parallel conductors
separated by a distance d, with lengths l1 and l2 and with
negligible width and thickness (Fig. 5) is given by [12]:

M f 0.001 z ln z z 2 2 z 2 2

l3 l1 ,l3 l2
l3 l2 l1,l3

(6)

where,
4

f z ss ,,ss z 1k 1 f sk
1

(7)

k 1

The result Mf is expressed in micro henrys for dimensions

in centimeters. To be noted that Eq. (6) covers all possible
positions of the two parallel filaments. It is given in its
expanded form for the special case elsewhere in literature
[13,14]. In TABLE II. , we identify all the parameters used in
Eq. 6 and Eq. 7 but that have been adapted to our case of two
parallel segments with respective lengths a and (a-2a) as
shown in Fig. 2. This will enable the use of Neumanns
formula to evaluate the mutual inductance value produced at
our microphone ends.

(2)

l2
l3

where,

M 0 a Q
2

a a 2

(4)

GMD

a a

Here, GMD (Geometric Mean Distance) is the geometric

mean of the distance between surfaces of both conductors (see
Fig. 2). The exact value of GMD can be obtained from the
Grover table [10] and can be estimated with an error less than
3% by [11]:

(1)

The mutual inductance will be calculated between two

parallel segments as shown in Fig. 2. It has a positive value for
the currents flowing in the same direction and negative in the
opposite case. The sum of mutual inductances calculated
(positive and negative) between conductors forming inner and
outer inductors gives the value of the total mutual inductance.
Several approaches have been gathered to compute the mutual
inductance in various practical cases. The coils thickness
dependence is present only in some of these expressions. For
others, the used methods depend only on conductor length and
assume that all other parameters, as width and thickness, are
negligible compared to the length. Therefore, an accurate
comparison should be performed in order to validate the
derived simplified formula.

GMD 2

(3)

with Q a purely geometrical parameter that can be written as:

l1
Fig. 5. Two parallel conductors arrangement for Neumann case study [12].

TABLE II. PARAMETERS FROM EQ. (6) AND RESPECTIVE ADAPTED ONES USED
TO EVALUATE MUTUAL INDUCTANCE BETWEEN TWO PARALLEL CONDUCTORS.
Parameters in Eq. (6)
Adapted parameters

l1
a

l2
(a - 2a)

l3
a

3) Ruehlis mutual inductance formula

1 P , P v
l1
z ln( z z 2 r 2 ) z 2 r 2
( z)
1 Pv, P
4

(8)

where,

l
D
v 1 , P z and r
l2
l2

Parameters in Eq. (8)

l1

l2

Dx

Dy

Dz

Adapted parameters

(a - 2a)

B. Method with thickness dependance (Hoers formula)

The Ruehli's method can be used to express the mutual

inductance formula without a dependence on coils thickness
and width. The mutual inductance presented by Ruehli for two
parallel conductors, as drawn in Fig. 6, is given by [15]:

Mr

TABLE III. PARAMETERS FROM EQ. (8) AND RESPECTIVE ADAPTED ONES
USED IN OUR CASE.

Dx2 Dy2

(9)

l2

In this section, we focus on mutual inductance expressions

involving coil thickness parameter. In our study, original
design factors used in basic formulas are to be replaced with
suitable parameters which are not only less complex but also
adapted to our specific design geometry. The exact expression
of the mutual inductance between two rectangular conductors
is given by the Hoer formula of Eq; (11) [10]. The parameters
of Eq. 11 are shown in Fig. 6 using as length a=l1, as width
w=e=d and thickness as t=b=c. The first conductor is
positioned so that its lower part is located at the origin of the
(x, y, z) coordinate system. The second one is placed in an
arbitrary position. Erreur ! Source du renvoi introuvable.
identifies the parameters used in Eq. 11 which are adapted to
our microsensor case. In Eq. 11, the mutual inductance has
been left intentionally in its original complicated form to be
able to evaluate it while dimensions are varied considerably.
The positive parts can cancel their negative counterparts.

Fig. 6. Parallel conductors arrangement for the Ruehli case study.

Table III identifies parameters used in Eq. 8 and those

respective ones which have been modified accordingly to fit
our case study.
Fig. 7. Parallel conductors arrangement for Hoer case study, which are both
thikness depending.
l 3 l 1, l 3 l 2

P b, P c
E e, E d

x x2 y2 z2
y4
z4
y 2 z 2

4 2 4 2 4 x ln

2
2

y z

2
2
2
2 2
4
4

y
x
y
z

x z x z

ln
y

2
2

4
24 24
x
z

2
2
2
2
2
4
4

x y x y z ln z x y z

0 .0 0 1
2
2

24 24

x
(
y
)
2 2 4
x

w t

4
4
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
(x y z 3x y 3 y z 3z x ) x y z

6
0

3
3
x yz

xy
xy z
xz
1
1

T
a
n
T
a
n

2
2
2
2
2
2

6
6

z x y z
y x y z

x 3 yz

yz

T a n 1

2
2
2
6

x
x
y
z

E d e, E
P c b , P

l 2 l 3 l 1,

(z)

(10)

l3

where,
4

f ( x, y, z ) ( x) qq1 qq3 ( y ) rr1 rr3 (z) ss1 ss3 = (-1)i+j+k+1 f (qi , rj , sk )

2 4
2 4
2 4

i=1 j=1 k=1

(11)

TABLE IV. PARAMETERS FROM EQ. (11) AND RESPECTIVE ADAPTED ONES
USED IN OUR CASE.
Parameters Eq. (11)

l1

l2

l3

Adapted parameters

(a-2a)

(a+w)

IV.

constant and was evaluated to be arround 7.2H between the

two inductors. The mutual inductance calculation for our
microsensor is very important since it can be used for the
output induced voltage determination when an incident
acoustic pressure is applied on the internal inductor.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Mutual inductance expressions have been estimated in the

case of two conductors. Now, its total value can be
approximated through the multiplication of the previously
derived expressions by the factor 4n1n2 [16]. After
calculation, the results obtained show that the Ruehli, Grover
and Neumanns formulas give nearly the same values of
7.184H for mutual inductance. To prove that thickness
parameter has a small or no effect on mutual inductance, we
plot this latter as a function of thickness using Hoer formula
(Fig. 8). We can clearly notice that the effect of thickness on
mutual inductance is almost constant up to 6m and barely
increases for up to 20m thickness. The variation of mutual
inductance value is as low as 0.01%.

This work was carried out with support from the Tunisian
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the
Department of Science & Technology, India in the framework
of the Tunisian-Indian joint research cooperation in the field
of scientific and technological research.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

[3]

7.162

Mutual inductance from Hoer's formula [H]

7.161

[4]

7.16
7.159

[5]

7.158

[6]
[7]

7.157
7.156
7.155

[8]

7.154
7.153
7.152

[9]
2

8
10
12
Thickness [m]

14

16

18

20

Fig. 8. Mutual inductance obtained from Hoers formula vs inductors coil

thickness.

As a result, we can state that inductors coil thickness has a

minor influence on the mutual inductance value. This says that
we can use much simpler mutual inductance expressions to
evaluate output induced voltage of our sensor.
Finally, for our case, the inductors thickness depends on
the available fabrication technology at the CEN in IITBombay
which does not exceed 1 m.
V.

CONCLUSION

In this paper, the mutual inductance between two planar

square inductors coil was evaluated aiming an electrodynamic
microphone application. This micromachined microsensor was
partly fabricated at the CEN in IITBombay using an EBL
process. This paper highlights that the conductor thickness
affects on the mutual inductance calculation was too small and
was arround 0.01% when using different calculation methods
and when the thickness reachs 20 m. For a small thickness
less than 2m, we can confirm that the mutual inductance was

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