Why Manufacturing, Not Design, Has Been the Real Barrier
Most discussions around integrated power focus on circuit topology or control techniques. In reality, the limiting factor has been manufacturing.
Sputtering-based approaches dominate thin-film magnetics today. While precise, they are inherently inefficient for building the thick, laminated structures required for high-performance inductors and transformers. Deposition rates are slow, and each additional layer introduces complexity, cost, and yield risk.
EnaChip’s approach fundamentally rethinks this.
Using electrochemical deposition, magnetic core layers and insulating layers are built sequentially in a continuous process. This enables:
Deposition times that traditionally take days can be reduced to hours. More importantly, process complexity collapses - from multi-mask, multi-step flows to a single-mask, few-step process.
This has two critical implications.
First, cost. A 3X reduction in manufacturing cost is not just a marginal improvement - it changes the economics of integration.
Second, scalability. By aligning with BEOL and OSAT-compatible processes, EnaChip’s approach can be deployed across existing semiconductor infrastructure without requiring new fabs or process nodes.
This is what makes wafer-level magnetics viable - not just technically, but commercially.