Patent ID: 8205324

Claim:
A method of fabricating an inductor structure over a substrate, the method comprising: forming a passivation layer over the substrate; forming a dielectric bottom element mold on the passivation layer, the bottom element mold including a plurality of raised portions that define a plurality of spaced-apart bottom element trenches, each bottom element trench having a bottom surface and sidewall surfaces and a longitudinal axis; forming a conductive bottom seed layer on exposed surfaces of the bottom element mold, including on the bottom and sidewall surfaces of each bottom element trench; utilizing the bottom seed layer to electroplate ferromagnetic material outward from the sidewall surfaces of the bottom element trenches to fill the bottom element trenches and such that the easy magnetic axis of the ferromagnetic material filling each bottom element trench is orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of said bottom element trench and the hard axis of the ferromagnetic material filling each bottom element trench is parallel to the longitudinal axis of said bottom element trench; planarizing a top surface of the ferromagnetic material filling each bottom element trench with a top surface of the bottom element mold; forming a first layer of dielectric material over the top surface of the planarized ferromagnetic material in each bottom element trench and over the top surface of the bottom layer mold; forming a conductive inductor coil over the first layer of dielectric material such that the conductive coil runs orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the bottom element trenches; forming a second layer of dielectric material to electrically insulate the conductive inductor coil; forming a dielectric top element mold on the second layer of dielectric material, the top element mold having a plurality of raised portions that define a plurality of spaced-apart top element trenches, each top element trench having a bottom surface and sidewall surfaces and a longitudinal axis; forming a conductive top seed layer on exposed surfaces of the top layer mold, including on the bottom and sidewall surfaces of each top element trench; and utilizing the top seed layer to electroplate ferromagnetic material outward from the sidewall surfaces of the top element trenches to fill the top element trenches and such that the easy magnetic axis of the ferromagnetic material filling each top element trench is orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of said top element trench and the hard magnetic axis of the ferromagnetic material filling each top element trench is parallel to the longitudinal axis of said top element trench, and wherein the ferromagnetic material is electroplated in an applied magnetic field that is parallel to the easy magnetic axis.