HIGH RESISTIVITY SPIN-ON COATING FOR THIN FILM RESISTORS

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE AREA OF SEMICONDUCTING POLYMERS HAVE MADE AVAILABLE A NEW CLASS OF MATERIALS WHICH HAVE CONDUCTIVITIES IN THE PROPER RANGE FOR SYNAPTIC CONNECTIONS FOR NEURAL NETWORKS. THIS STUDY WILL INVESTIGATE THIS TECHNOLOGY IN FOUR TASKS: DETERMINATION OF SPIN-COATING PARAMETERS, MEASUREMENT OF ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES, EVALUATIONOF STABILITY AND REPRODUCIBILITY, AND FABRICATION AND TESTING OF SMALL-GEOMETRY RESISTORS REPRESENTING THE SYNAPTIC CONNECTIONS. THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT IS TO DETERMINE THE UTILITY OF THIS CLASS OF POLYMERS FOR NEURAL NETWORK APPLICATIONS AND TO EVALUATE THEIR PROPERTIES FOR MORE GENERAL APPLICATIONS IN MICROELECTRONICS. THE AVAILABILITY OF A STABLE AND REPRODUCIBLE MATERIAL WITH A RESISTIVITY OF ABOUT 100KOHMS/CM**2 IS A PROBLEM FOR NEURAL NETWORKS AS WELL AS ANY SMALL-GEOMETRY ANALOG CIRCUITRY. A SPIN-COATABLE THIN FILM RESISTIVE MATERIAL WOULD FILL A GENERAL NEED IN THE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT INDUSTRY.