Effect of silica on the non-linear electrical property of polymer composites

The electrostatic discharge (ESD) control in semiconductor devices is a very important task during the manufacturing stage or for final users. Utilizing polymer based varistors has great advantages in process temperature and dimensional control over the conventional oxide non-linear conductors as a protection mean for electronic device from ESD transient. [5,8] In this paper, the effect of nano-fumed silica on the non-linear electrical property of polymer-metal composites was investigated. We have found that the concentration of silica as an insulating filler plays an important role on the evolution of non-linear IN characteristics of the polymer composite. Furthermore, a polymer composite did not show its non-linear IN characteristics until enough insulative phases were provided within the polymer composite.