Integrated on-chip solid state capacitor based on vertically aligned carbon nanofibers, grown using a CMOS temperature compatible process

Abstract

Complete miniaturized on-chip integrated solid-state capacitors have been fabricated based on conformal coating of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs), using a CMOS temperature compatible microfabrication processes. The 5 µm long VACNFs, operating as electrode, are grown on a silicon substrate and conformally coated by aluminum oxide dielectric using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. The areal (footprint) capacitance density value of 11–15 nF/mm2 is realized with high reproducibility. The CMOS temperature compatible microfabrication, ultra-low profile (less than 7 µm thickness) and high capacitance density would enables direct integration of micro energy storage devices on the active CMOS chip, multi-chip package and passives on silicon or glass interposer. A model is developed to calculate the surface area of VACNFs and the effective capacitance from the devices. It is thereby shown that 71% of surface area of the VACNFs has contributed to the measured capacitance, and by using the entire area the capacitance can potentially be increased.