High Energy Density Polymer Capacitor Development

The development of low loss, high energy/high power density storage materials is important for Army applications ranging from capacitors to pulse power component technologies. To maximize the energy density of a high energy density polymer capacitor, not only must the constituent polymer material properties be optimized, but the best capacitor fabrication/production techniques must be employed. Adhesion of vapor deposited aluminum as well as the breakdown voltages of a number of polymer films have been markedly increased after these polymer films have been briefly exposed to various low pressure, low temperature gas plasmas. Initial evaluations on prototypes, spirally wound polymer capacitors (capacitor was briefly exposed to a 96% CF4/4% 02 gas plasma) have shown that breakdown voltage can be increased by a factor of 2-4. Why does plasma processing significantly improve breakdown strength, and what are the optimum plasma processing conditions that produce these improvements without causing any undersirable effects on other bulk properties of the capacitor polymer? TPL will develop and demonstrate various spirally wound, capacitors based on specific ETDL inventions/patents which have already been prototyped and successfully demonstrated. Selected polymer films and capacitors will be fabricated and subjected to plasma treatments to identify both the optimum processing conditions and the fundamental basis for the dielectric breakdown improvements. TPL will identify specific military and commercial candidate applications and users for the optimized technology.