Application of gold nanodots for Maxwell-Wagner loss reduction

Any element or mechanism that can cause a spatial variation of charge density can contribute to the dielectric susceptibility of a structure. Particularly, we focus on metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures that support interfacial polarisation. Since energy storage and dissipation are two aspects of the same phenomenon, the attainable large effective electric permittivity of such structures is accompanied by comparably large dielectric losses that prohibit practical application in monolithic-microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). The authors present a process technique for developing gold nanodots buried in the insulating medium that confine the electric field within the oxide layer, that is prohibiting E-field penetration to the substrate, which is rather lossy. Measured results demonstrate that the proposed structure exhibits an almost identical effective electric permittivity with a standard MIS, nonetheless the losses are decreased.