AVS 46th International Symposium
    Electronic Materials and Processing Division Friday Sessions
       Session EM-FrM

Paper EM-FrM9
Boron Nitride Thin Films for High Temperature Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor Chips (MLC3’s)

Friday, October 29, 1999, 11:00 am, Room 608

Session: In Situ Monitoring and Growth
Presenter: N. Badi, University of Houston
Authors: N. Badi, University of Houston
D. Starikov, University of Houston
N. Medelci, University of Houston
I.E. Berishev, University of Houston
A. Bensaoula, University of Houston
Correspondent: Click to Email
There is a great need for miniaturized, high power density, low cost capacitors that operate at high frequency and can sustain high operating temperatures. In our laboratory we are investigating the use of boron nitride (BN) based materials for such devices. Advantages of BN include high temperature and chemical resistance which should result in more compact, and reliable devices. We investigate here, the temperature stability of different multilayer capacitor heterostructures (e.g. TiN/BN/TiN/Si, Cu/BN/Cu/quartz, Cu/AlN/Si). To study the interdiffusion between the dielectric and the electrodes at elevated temperatures, we performed secondary ions mass spectroscopy (SIMS) on two structures: (I) TiN/B/BN/Si and (II) B/TiN/Si. In this manner we minimize ion mixing effects in determining the quality of the relevant interfaces (TiN/B/BN and B/TiN/Si) at annealing temperatures up to 500 °C. High resolution SEM pictures from TiN/BN/TiN/Si samples showed dense boron nitride layers with sharp interfaces. However Cu/AlN/Si structures showed copper diffusion into the silicon substrate due to the columnar structure of the single crystal AlN films. I-V measurements revealed the highly insulating properties of TiN/BN/TiN/Si capacitor. In fact a breakdown voltage (BDV) of 400 V/mm was measured for a 2000 Å BN thin layer. C-V measurements from a 3mm x 4 mm planar structure, show a capacitance value of 1.1 nF at 10 KHz and 1 Vrms. Furthermore the temperature dependence of C-V characteristics, dissipation factor, insulation resistance, and reliability of the ceramic capacitor will be presented. This work was supported by funds from a NASA cooperative agreement #NCC8-127 to SVEC, a Texas Advanced Technology Program Grant # 1-1-32061, and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization/Science and technology and managed by William Shoup from The DTRA/CPTI. @FootnoteText@ *A. Bensaoula email address: Bens@jetson.uh.edu.