Electroceramic Thin Films Part I: Processing
- PDF / 2,141,153 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 576 x 777.6 pts Page_size
- 30 Downloads / 230 Views
The tremendous growth of research on ferroelectric thin films in recent years has resulted in the development of sophisticated film-synthesis techniques and a substantial improvement in the understanding of the related materials science and implementation of films in various novel devices. A major driving force behind the progress in this interdisciplinary field of research is the promise of the development of a new generation of devices such as nonvolatile memories with long endurance and high-speed access that can overcome problems such as memory speed and volatility encountered
MRS BULLETIN/JUNE 1996
in the semiconductor and magneticmemory technologies. Researchers have also rediscovered the utility of ferroelectric materials as high-dielectric-constant capacitors, which opens new possibilities for manufacturing planar, very highdensity dynamic random-access memories (DRAMs). Ceramic conductors can be applied to ohmic, voltage-dependent, and thermally sensitive resistors; fast-ion conductors; humidity and gas sensors. Piezoelectricity is being exploited in micromachines such as accelerometers, displacement transducers, and actuators such as those required for inkjet printers, video-recording head positioning, and micromachining. Pyroelectricity can be utilized in the fabrication of highsensitivity, room-temperature infrared detectors while electro-optic activity can be used in color-filter devices, displays, image-storage systems, and optical switches for integrated optical systems. These applications of electroceramic thin films are only a part of a more extensive list. Substantial progress has been made in the field of synthesis and processing of electroceramic thin films and implementation into prototype devices. However, there are still some critical materials and device issues that need to be solved for the realization of commercially available devices. This MRS Bulletin focuses on the discussion of the synthesis of ferroelectric thin films and heterostructures and processing integration issues. The first article describes the advances in sputter-deposition techniques and their contribution to the development of materials-integration strategies to produce ferroelectric thin-film-based devices with unique properties. The second article is dedi-
cated to discussing pulsed laser-ablation deposition, which is a uniquely adapted technique for rapid exploration of new materials-integration strategies that can be translated into processing methods more suited for device fabrication. The third article focuses on chemical-vapordeposition (CVD) advances to synthesize ferroelectric thin films with properties suitable for devices. Chemical vapor deposition is considered the method of choice for fabrication of thin-film-based devices such as nonvolatile ferroelectric random-access memories (NVFRAMs) and DRAMs. The fourth article is dedicated to a discussion of plasmaenhanced metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (PE-MOCVD) as an alternative to CVD to synthesize as-deposited electroceramic thin films at low substrat
Data Loading...
