Sub-Micrometer Zeolite Films on Gold-Coated Silicon Wafers with Single-Crystal-Like Dielectric Constant and Elastic Modulus

Raffaele Tiriolo, Neel Rangnekar, Han Zhang, Meera Shete, Peng Bai, John Nelson, Evguenia Karapetrova, Christopher W. Macosko, Joern Ilja Siepmann, Ernesto Lamanna, Angelo Lavano, Michael Tsapatsis

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10 Scopus citations

Abstract

A low-temperature synthesis coupled with mild activation produces zeolite films exhibiting low dielectric constant (low-k) matching the theoretically predicted and experimentally measured values for single crystals. This synthesis and activation method allows for the fabrication of a device consisting of a b-oriented film of the pure-silica zeolite MFI (silicalite-1) supported on a gold-coated silicon wafer. The zeolite seeds are assembled by a manual assembly process and subjected to optimized secondary growth conditions that do not cause corrosion of the gold underlayer, while strongly promoting in-plane growth. The traditional calcination process is replaced with a nonthermal photochemical activation to ensure preservation of an intact gold layer. The dielectric constant (k), obtained through measurement of electrical capacitance in a metal–insulator–metal configuration, highlights the ultralow k ≈ 1.7 of the synthetized films, which is among the lowest values reported for an MFI film. There is large improvement in elastic modulus of the film (E ≈ 54 GPa) over previous reports, potentially allowing for integration into silicon wafer processing technology.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1700864
JournalAdvanced Functional Materials
Volume27
Issue number25
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 5 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Keywords

  • Dielectrics
  • Low-k materials
  • Synchrotron X-ray diffraction
  • UV treatment
  • Zeolites

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