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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.
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
ne 2
m
(1)
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)
A2 d 2
22 dT
(9)
TCRR
A1
TCR1
A2
TCR2 (11)
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
TCC 2 (5)
1
R
1 dR A1 d1
2
R 2 dT
1 dT
TCC
(2)
1 dC d1 d 1
2
C 2 dT
1 dT
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
911
Strontiumtitanate
nanocomposite testvehicle
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)
Resistance(Oxide)
57.5
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Temperature(oC)
Bariumtitanate
nanocomposite testvehicle
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.
912
TwoMicron
STEpoxyNanocomposite
(15)
(16)
Fig. 6: SEM of the ST-epoxy nanocomposite film crosssection. The film-thickness is 2 microns.
r:26.1;
TCC:1800ppm/C
913
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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