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Integration of Precision Resistors and Capacitors with Near-Zero Temperature Coefficients

in Silicon and Organic Packages


P. Makondeya Raj*, K. P. Murali, Saumya Gandhi and Rao Tummala
3D Systems Packaging Research Center
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0560
Kirk Slenes and Nathan Berg
TPL Inc., Albuquerque, NM 87109
* Email: raj@ece.gatech.edu
Polymer-ceramic nanocomposites provide the benefits of
low-cost manufacturing with enhanced properties and are
hence widely pursued by industry and academia. However,
traditional barium titanate-polymer composites are not
suitable for high Q RF components. They do not achieve the
required dielectric loss of less than 0.005 and TCC within 50
ppm/C, even with the best ferroelectric fillers. Several
substrate companies, including Rogers, Oakmitsui and
Dupont [5] are now focusing on developing novel RF
substrates, by incorporating low-loss paraelectric-based high
k fillers in polymeric materials. These high-permittivity and
low loss RF substrates are good candidates for miniaturizing
certain RF components. However, they do not meet the
thermal-stability requirements for several applications when
the permittivity is above 10.

Abstract
This paper reports novel material and process
technologies for near-zero Temperature-Coefficient Resistors
(TCR) and zero temperature coefficient of capacitance
(TCC) capacitors and their integration into organic or
silicon packages for precision RF components. A new
concept of self-compensating resistors, leading to zero TCR
was explored and demonstrated for the first time, using
heterogeneous resistor stack structures consisting of metal
layers with positive TCR and semiconducting oxide layers
with negative TCR. Zero TCC capacitors were demonstrated
with a film-stack consisting of ceramic nanocomposites of
positive TCC and negative TCC. In both cases, the film
thickness was designed such that there is internal
compensation in temperature deviation, which results in zero
temperature-coefficient. Material models were developed for
the film-stack to design the films for zero temperaturecoefficient.
Introduction
Miniaturization RF modules with high componentdensity is a major bottleneck for emerging wireless and
mobile computing, and bioelectronics systems. System
integration targets for these applications dictate a dielectric
permittivity of above 20, Q factors of greater than 200, and
dielectric stability at GHz frequencies. In addition, the
capacitance value has to be stable within 0.3% over 100 oC
range of temperature to meet the performance requirements.
Similarly, integration of thin film resistors has been facing
major hurdles, not because of the lack of materials with
suitable resistivity, but primarily because of
process
tolerances, and thermal instability in the materials properties.
Over the past few decades, materials employed in highfrequency RF applications were mostly confined to thick
film LTCC [1] owing to its low loss, stable properties, and
partial integration capability, although the end-systems with
these technologies are still bulky and costly [2].
Polymer dielectrics, on the other hand, provide the
benefits of low-cost manufacturing, miniaturization and
integration capabilities with the rest of the polymer-based
packages and boards [3-4]. However, traditional organic
materials such as epoxies have high electrical losses at high
frequencies, while low-loss organic-based fluoropolymers,
BCB (Benzocyclobutene) and others have low permittivity.
These limitations lead to large component designs that make
it hard to build integrated high-performance front-end
modules.

978-1-4673-1965-2/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

HighKLayer2(PositiveTCC)
HighKLayer1(NegativeTCC)

Metal(PositiveTCR)
MetalOxide(NegativeTCR)

Bothlayerscanbedepositedinasinglestep;

Silicon,GlassorOrganic
Fig.1: Schematic of resistor and capacitor thinfilm integration
in a RF module package or on an IPD.

910

By choosing fillers that have opposite TCC behavior


compared to that of the polymer, the net TCC can be
modulated to the target value. Previous research at GT-PRC
has shown this concept with low-permittivity filler-polymer
systems such as BCB-alumina and BCB-Ta2O5 [6]. This
paper extends this research to higher permittivity superparaelectric fillers. Ferroelectrics at nanoscale show
interesting combinations of high permittivity, linear variation
of permittivity with temperature and low loss, making them
good candidates for ceramic-polymer composites. However,
the thermal deviation with such fillers is much higher (10003000 ppm/C) compared to that of oxides. The linear TCC
behavior allows to internally compensate the thermal
deviation by choosing films with positive and negative TCC.
A stack consisting of nanocomposite films with negative and
positive TCC is designed to achieve zero TCC with high
capacitance density of 5-10 nF/cm2. The schematic of such a
capacitor film stack is shown in Fig. 1
A similar concept is also applicable for integrating zero
Temperature Coefficient of Resistance (TCR) resistors using
a resistor stack. The resistor stack consists of semiconducting

oxide film and a metallic film. The conductivity () of


materials is proportional to the charge carrier density (n) and
relaxation time between the electron-scattering events () as
follows:

ne 2
m

(1)

The relaxation time is inversely proportional to the


temperature because of the scattering from lattice vibrations.
In other words, resistivity linearly increases with temperature
with a positive TCR for metals. The conductivity of
semiconductors increases with temperature because of the
higher carrier concentration. These materials therefore have
negative TCR. A resistor film-stack consisting of metal film
with positive TCR and a semiconducting oxide with negative
TCR is designed to achieve zero net TCR. High-resistivity
metal alloys can be converted to semiconductors by bleeding
oxygen into the sputtering chamber to partially oxidize the
metal. This process enables to synthesize the film-stack in a
single sputtering step.
TCC models for dielectric film stack:
The capacitance of films with dielectrics stacked one above
the other is treated as two capacitors in series. For such a
stack, the net capacitance is expressed as:

1
C

d1

1 A1

d2
2 A2

TCCC

d 2 d 2
22 dT

1 d
dT

d1

TCC1

(3)

A1

1 L1

A2
2 L2

(8)

where 1 and 2 are the resistivities of film 1 and 2


respectively, A is the cross-sectional area of the resistor and L
is the resistor length. The length and width of the resistors 1
and 2 are the same. The cross-sectional area (A) is
proportional to the resistor thickness. The TCR of the
composite is obtained by differentiating Equation (8) with
respect to temperature, and rearranging the equation.

A2 d 2
22 dT

(9)

Based on the definition of TCR, equation (9) can be


rearranged and simplified.
1 d
(10)
TCR
dT

TCRR

A1

TCR1

A2

TCR2 (11)

Since the cross-sectional area is proportional to the film


thickness, the thickness of the dielectrics can be designed to
achieve zero TCR as follows:
1 TCC 2 (13)
t1

t2
2 TCC1
The thickness, resistivity and TCR of resistor layers 1 and 2,
can be altered by changing the sputtering time, sputtering
atmosphere and the alloys system.

(4)

d2

To achieve zero TCR for the film stack:


A1
A2
TCR1
TCR 2 (12)

TCC 2 (5)

To achieve zero TCC for the film stack:


d1
d2
TCC1
TCC 2 (6)

1
R

1 dR A1 d1
2
R 2 dT
1 dT

Using the definition of TCC, equation (2) can be rearranged.

TCC

TCR models for resistor film stack:


The resistance of a film stack with two resistor films 1 and
2 stacked one above the other is expressed as two resistors in
parallel:

(2)

where 1 and 2 are dielectric constants of dielectric 1 and 2


respectively, A is the area and d is the dielectric thickness. In
this case, the TCC of the composite can be obtained by simple
differentiation with respect to temperature, and rearranging
the equation. Assuming that the thickness and area do not
change with temperature significantly,

1 dC d1 d 1
2
C 2 dT
1 dT

and nanoscale barium titante composite films with similar


permittivities but of opposite TCC signs. In case where the
TCCs are different, the film thickness can be chosen to make
the net TCC zero. For example, with the selection of films of
barium strontium titanate (BST) nanocomposite (permittivity
of 30 and TCC of 2000 ppm/C) and strontium titanate
nanocomposite (with permittivity of 26 and TCC of -1800
ppm/C), the dielectric thickness ratio is also equal to ~1 as
estimated from Equation (7). With this film stack, the net
permittivity is estimated as ~27 with a net zero TCC.

The thickness of the dielectrics can be then designed as


follows:
d1
1 TCC 2
(7)

d2
2 TCC1
For films with similar permittivity but TCC of opposite signs,
the net TCC can be made zero by choosing the same dielectric
thickness. This is possible with nanoscale strontium titanate

Materials and Methods:


Resistor process: A sputtered film stack of an alloy
and its oxide nanocomposite was used as the resistor. Both
films were sputtered with a RF power source. The
semiconducting layer was produced by bleeding oxygen into
the chamber in order to partially oxidize the film. The ratio
of O2 to Ar is varied from 3-10%. This approach provides
unique process simplicity and flexibility in achieving the low
TCR. The alloy film was obtained with pure Ar sputtering.

911

Strontiumtitanate
nanocomposite testvehicle

Results and Discussion:


The temperature deviation of resistance for the alloy and
semiconducting oxide film are shown in Fig. 3. The metal
layer shows typical positive TCR while the over-layered oxide
displays semiconducting behavior with negative TCR,
consistent with the proposed concept. For the alloy (of 80
ohm-cm and TCR1 of 410 ppm/C) and oxide (of 900
ohm-cm and TCR1 of -1010 ppm/C) selected in the current
study,
t Metal
0.21 (14)
t Oxide
From Equation (13), the representative thickness for the
metal and oxide layers is designed as 67 nm and 320 nm to
achieve the internal self-compensation for zero TCR. By
selecting higher resistivity alloys, the concept can be extended
to achieve higher sheet resistance.
2.25E+04

60.5

TCR=1010ppm/C
2.20E+04

60

Oxide
Alloy

2.15E+04

59.5

TCR=410ppm/C
2.10E+04

59

2.05E+04

58.5

2.00E+04

58

1.95E+04

Resistance(Metal)

Capacitor Process: Strontium titanate (ST) (TPL Inc.


Albuquerque New Mexico) with an average particle size of
100 nm was selected as the filler for negative TCC. It has
negative TCC between room temperature and 130 oC [1214]. The ST powders were suspended in a solution consisting
of a dispersant (BYK W9010, Byk-Chemie USA,
Wallingford, CT) and Propylene Glycol Methyl Ether
Acetate (PGMEA) as solvent (Aldrich chemical company,
Inc., Milwaukee, WI). The suspensions were then milled for
15 hours. EPON 828 resin with Epikure 3300 as the curing
agent (Momentive Performance Materials, Waterford, NY)
was added to the slurry such that the ST-Epoxy
nanocomposite had a ceramic filler loading of 60 vol%. After
milling the slurry for 2 hours, the mixed slurry was spincoated on a copper-clad high Tg (glass transition
temperature) FR-4 laminate at 1200 RPM for 30s. The
samples were then cured in a convection oven under nitrogen
atmosphere according to the curing profiles recommended by
the manufacturer. The final thickness of nanocomposite
materials was 2 m. This composite film provides the
negative TCC.

2. Temperature-dependence of the capacitance for the


nanocomposite films was measured with HP 4285A LCR
meter (Agilent Technologies Inc., Englewood, CO) between
25 oC and 140 oC at 100 kHz.

Resistance(Oxide)

The films were then patterned to form individual resistor


structures. Gold was evaporated at either ends of the resistor
film to form metal pads for electrical characterization. In
case of semiconductor films, a thin layer of silicon nitride
was deposited so that the films do not get further oxidized
during the electrical testing. The nitride film suppresses the
resistor oxidation and gives more stable measurements. The
resistivity was measured with a multimeter, with the sample
heated on a hot-plate. The temperature reading from the hotplate display deviates from the sample temperature by more
than 30-40 C. A contact thermometer was used to measure
the sample temperature directly from the hot-plate. A
Signatone Four-Point Probe (Signatone Corp., Gilroy, CA)
was utilized for measuring the sheet resistance and the
resistivity of the film. The film thickness was measured with
Tenkor contact profilometer (KLA Tenkor, Milpitas, CA).

57.5

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Temperature(oC)

Fig. 3: TCR behavior for an alloy and its semiconductor oxide.

Bariumtitanate
nanocomposite testvehicle

Fig. 2: Parallel plate capacitor structures for characterizing


capacitance and temperature coefficient of capacitance of
nanocomposite films.

For positive TCC, barium titanate nanocomposite thinfilms were deposited such that the film has high permittivity
but with suppressed TCC and losses. Finally, 1 m thick
gold top electrodes were deposited by evaporating through a
shadow mask. Such a capacitor test-vehicle is shown in Fig.

Fig. 4: Temperature coefficient of permittivity of barium


titanate nanocomposite films.

The barium titanate nanocomposite films showed a linear


temperature deviation with a TCC of 600 ppm/C, as shown in
Fig. 4. The permittivity for this film is ~13. The nanoscale

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barium titanate makes the film paraelectric in nature and


suppresses the non-linear thermal deviation behavior that is
usually seen in the ferroelectric films.
Fig. 5 shows the temperature dependence of capacitance of
ST-Epoxy composite films. The TCC of the nanocomposite is
-1830 ppm/C. The permittivity was estimated by measuring
the film thickness from SEM cross-sections of the film. Fig. 6
shows the cross-section of the film coated on a copper-clad
laminate. The composite permittivity is usually expressed
with a modified Lichteneckers law [7].

log c m log m kv f log f

matrices based on silicones and fluoropolymers, the dielectric


loss can be lowered to less than 0.005 while retaining the zero
TCC and permittivity of above 20, as targeted in this research.

TwoMicron
STEpoxyNanocomposite

(15)

refers to the volume fraction, the permittivity, and the


sub-scripts m and f refer to the matrix and filler respectively.
k relates to the coupling between the particles.
Differentiating with temperature, the TCC can be written as:

TCC C mTCC m kv f TCC f

(16)

The TCC of the composite in this case is therefore linearly


dependent on the volume fraction of the filler in the composite.
Pure strontium titanate shows a TCC of -3000 ppm/C [8]. For
60 vol.% filler loading, the composite TCC is estimated as 1800 ppm/C, which matches closely with the measured value.
Materials such as strontium titanate and calcium titanate
are incipient ferroelectrics where the permittivity varies with
temperature in accordance with Curie-Weiss law but do not
undergo paraelectric-to-ferroelectric transition [8]. These
fillers show negative TCC but with low loss. Fillers of
(Bax,Sr1-x)TiO3 show positive or negative TCC depending on
the composition x. However, for typical BST nanoparticles for
high permittivity where x is above 0.5, the TCC is highly nonlinear. The nanocomposite shows both positive and negative
TCC in the range of 30-130 oC. With finer nanoparticles of
size less than 50 nm, the thermal behavior becomes more
linear.

Fig. 6: SEM of the ST-epoxy nanocomposite film crosssection. The film-thickness is 2 microns.

The temperature deviation of capacitance for both the


negative TCC ST-epoxy nanocomposite and positive TCC
barium titanate nanocomposite film is shown in Fig. 7. Based
on the temperature coefficients and permittivities shown in
Fig. 7, the film stack can be designed to achieve zero TCC.
The thickness ratio for the positive TCC and negative TCC
films in this case is 1.5.
r:13.1;
TCC:600ppm/C

r:26.1;
TCC:1800ppm/C

Fig. 7: Temperature deviation of permittivity with ST-epoxy


nanocomposites and barium titanate nanocomposite film.

Fig. 5: Temperature dependence of permittivity and loss of


ST-epoxy nanocomposites.

The dielectric loss also reduces to ~0.01 for


nanocomposites because of the suppressed ferroelectric nature.
With optimized filler composition and low-loss polymer

The tolerance for the capacitors and resistors are shown in


Table 1. For the ST-epoxy capacitors, the nanocomposite
films were spin-coated and the top electrode was evaporated
through a shadow-mask to achieve good uniformity in the
electrode area. The capacitors showed a tolerance of 3.5%
which indicates homogeneous material composition. The
variation is attributed to the difference in the film thickness
and the distribution of the filler material from the center of the
substrate to the edge because of spin-coating.
The resistor components were fabricated by a two-step wetetching process. The film-stack was patterned first as horseshoe and bog-bone structures, followed by the copper-pad
patterning using a subtractive (etch-back) process. The main

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reason for the high deviation in the resistance is the nonuniform film thickness from the 3-inch sputter-target. The
resistors also showed higher deviation because the electrode
and resistor film-patterning involves wet-etching with undercut. Dry-etching with precision lithography can achieve
tolerances of less than 5%.
Table 1: Tolerance from resistor and capacitor test-vehicles.

Capacitors
Resistors

Mean
12 nF/cm2
150 ohms/sqr

Tolerance
3.5%
10%

Conclusions
Novel zero TCC and TCR concepts based on engineering
of heterogeneous film stacks were explored and demonstrated,
for the first time. For zero TCR resistors, a metal alloy and its
oxide were sputtered as thinfilms with positive and negative
TCRs respectively. A TCR model was developed to design
and engineer a film stack with these oxide films such that the
net TCR is zero. Similarly, zero TCC nanocomposite filmstacks were designed and engineered using a strontium
titanate-epoxy nanocomposite films with negative TCC and
barium titanate nanocomposite films with positive TCC. A
high-permittivity nanocomposite stack with zero TCC, but
processable on organic layers is shown to be feasible for the
first time, based on the film measurements.

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