Researchers try enhancing the capacitance of microelectronic capacitors
THE microelectronic revolution that
we've witnessed during the past decade
has simultaneously aimed at miniaturising the components of a circuit as well
as enhancing its performance. For
instance, the Intel Pentium microprocessor is about twice as powerful as
the now vintage Intel 80386 processor,
while their sizes remain roughly the same.
An important component of microelectronic circuits are capacitors, components which form the
basis of many memory devices like dynamic random access memory
(DRAM) devices. Capacitors in their simplest form
consist of two metal plates with an insulator in between. The capacitance
of a capacitor can be three strategies have been tried.
Extremely thin films of the dielectric
have been used but they seem to have
reached their limits where any further
reduction will result in loss of charge.
The area of the plates has been increased
by several methods such as introducing
trenches or fins. But technology has
reached its limits even in this case. The
task of increasing the dielectric constant
has also been challenging.
But now, R F Cave and others at the
AT&T Bell Labs at Murray
Hill, us, have reported a
major success. They have
discovered that with the
incorporation of titanium
oxide into tantalum oxide
(the favoured material for
capacitor fabrication), the
capacitance of the capacitor could be enhanced.
The dielectric constant of tantalum
oxide alone is around 35, but with the
introduction of titanium oxide, Cava
and his team have been able to increase
the dielectric constant to 126. This
leap forward will no doubt have a
major impact on the microelectronic industry.
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