High Performance Materials for Integrated Capacitance

Current trends towards miniaturization and increased performance of consumer electronics are requiring higher component densities in printed circuit boards. Microprocessors speeds are currently limited by inefficiencies in interconnects between the processor and supporting discrete devices such as capacitors. Further improvements in speed will required the integration of capacitors into the PC board. Successful integration will require development of materials with high dielectric constant and uniform response over a broad frequency and temperature range. Deposition and processing techniques must also be compatible with current board manufacturing. A composite material is proposed to meet these challenges, and will be based upon epoxy copolymers and nanometer scale ceramics synthesized at TPL. The specific goal is to obtain a parallel capacitance of 25 nF/cm2 in a thin film which can be deposited directly onto current FR-4 boards. TPL has extensive experience in dielectric polymers and ceramics, including the development of doping methods to produce 50 nm dielectric powders with flattened frequency and temperature response. TPL is currently working with AlliedSignal Laminates to develop processing techniques for embedded capacitance layers based upon titanate ceramics. This industrial partnership will be used to develop the new composite material to meet military and commercial application specifications.