Fabrication and evaluation of dispersed-Ag nanoparticles-in-polyimide thin films

Abstract

A thin-film common-mode filter (TF-CMF) for cell phones in the UHF band was fabricated and evaluated. The TF-CMF consisted of multiple metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors and inductors. The sizes of the 0.70–1.0 GHz band-type and 1.8–2.0 GHz band-type TF-CMFs are 1,140 × 1,260 × 10.5 µm3, and 1,060 × 1,060 × 10.5 µm3, respectively. The footprint in both types of TF-CMFs is over 1 mm2. In order to miniaturize the TF-CMF, we proposed to change a polyimide-only to a polyimide with dispersed Ag nanoparticles with high permittivity in the insulator layer for the MIM capacitor of the TF-CMF. A polyimide () thin film with dispersed high-density Ag nanoparticles has a relative permittivity of about 8, which is twice as high as that of the polyimide-only thin film. If the capacitance and distance between electrodes are the same, then the capacitor footprint may be halved.