NSF Award
0539820
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will explore feasibility and demonstrate<br/>advantages of the application of novel BaTiO3 nanoparticles based embedded decoupling<br/>capacitors (nCAP) fabricated using electrostatic directed assembly of the nanoparticles. <br/>The state-of-the-art embedded capacitors are mostly microcomposites involving high dielectric materials such as BaTiO3 as filler dispersant in the epoxy polymer matrix. The dispersant particle size ranges from few-to-tens of microns, which limits the thickness of the embedded capacitor films. Moreover, due to the random arrangement of ferroelectric BaTiO3 particles, the overall dielectric constant is much closer to the very low value of the polymer (around 4) than the high-k filler (thousands). The electric field between the capacitor plates sees the dielectric as high and low phases in series, and capacitors in series have a lower overall value than either single capacitor. We propose to explore a unique electrostatic spray coating (ESC) method for the deposition of nanosized BaTiO3 particles dispersed in an epoxy polymer for oriented (layered) assembly of ferroelectric particles. In ESC process, nanoparticles are charged before deposition to activate directed self assembly of nanoparticles on metal ground plane of capacitor substrate. In this layered assembly, the electric field would see this arrangement as a high-k and a low-k phase in parallel, resulting in their values being added and allowing higher overall dielectric value. As an example, if the polymer phase were k = 4.6 (common FR4) and the ferroelectric powder phase k = 10,000, the overall dielectric constant of the design would be 5,000-7,000. Also, the use of nanosized dispersant ceramic will assist in processing these composites in thinner films. The nCAPTM will be deposited on metal-coated epoxy polymer substrates, which are of key interest to our manufacturing partner DuPont Corporation, a leading US manufacturer of microelectronics packaging materials.<br/><br/>Commercially, if successful, this nCAP innovation will aid manufactures of<br/>electronics packages materials in overcoming limitations currently offered due to low<br/>dielectric properties. The proposed project will advance the state-of-the-art for the fabrication of passive devices. A successful outcome will further the trend to smaller, more powerful electronic devices. The societal impact includes possible benefits such as improved communication systems, portable medical devices and many other consumer and strategic applications such as biomedical, portable data assistants and laptops, wireless communication, energy storage, etc.
