Nanowerk May 6, 2024
Currently state-of-the-art miniaturized electrochemical energy storage systems face safety, packaging, materials, and microfabrication challenges preventing on-chip technological readiness. A team of researchers in the US (UC Berkeley, MIT, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) demonstrated record-high electrostatic energy storage density (ESD) and power density (PD) in HfO2- ZrO2-based thin film microcapacitors integrated on silicon, through a three-pronged approach. To increase intrinsic energy storage, they engineered atomic-layer-deposited antiferroelectric HfO2-ZrO2 films near a field-driven ferroelectric phase transition; antiferroelectric superlattice engineering scaled the total energy storage performance; and the superlattices were conformally integrated into three-dimensional capacitors to increase storage-per-footprint. Integration of ultrahigh-density and ultrafast-charging thin films within a BEOL-compatible process enabled monolithic integration of on-chip microcapacitors which could unlock substantial energy storage and power delivery performance for electronic microsystems… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE (unedited)