Formation and dielectric properties of a novel polymer-metal nanocomposite [for embedded capacitor application]

Composites of metal particles within a dielectric medium have attracted a lot of attention because of the interesting properties exhibited by them. The current object of interest is the behavior of such polymer nanocomposites near the percolation loading levels of the metal nanoparticles. This material is particularly suited for a new technology called the Integral Passive technology. Discrete capacitors are used in many applications such as noise suppression, filtering, tuning, decoupling, bypassing, termination, and frequency determination, and they occupy substantial amount of surface area on a substrate. Therefore, there are limitations in the number of capacitors can be placed around the chip. Integral passive components are gradually replacing discrete components due to the inherent advantages of improved electrical performance, increased real estate on the printed wiring board (PWB), miniaturization of interconnect distance, reduced processing costs, and efficient electronics packaging. For integral capacitors, polymer composite material has emerged as a potential candidate, since it meets the requirements of low processing temperature and reasonably high dielectric constant. The current study achieves the polymer-metal composite through an in-situ reduction in an epoxy matrix. Various parameters affecting the nanoparticle size are discussed and optimum conditions obtained. Material characterization was done through TEM, SEM, EDAX and X-ray analysis. Dielectric characterization is done through an LCR meter. Novel dielectric behavior has been observed. Possible Coulomb blockade effects are discussed to explain the novel behavior.