The pioneering work was published in 2001 [9], and various ceramic films fabricated by AD have been studied quite intensively in recent years. In previous research, ferroelectric BaTiO3 was employed in high-density embedded decoupling capacitors using the AD method. BaTiO3 films with thicknesses of 0.1 to 2.2 μm were deposited on Cu and stainless steel (SUS) substrates [10–13]. The BaTiO3 films with a thickness of less than 0.5 μm on Cu substrates

and 0.2 μm on SUS substrates exhibited conductor properties because of their high leakage currents. The leakage current mechanisms for aerosol-deposited BaTiO3 thin films and the causes of the high leakage currents were determined in previous research [10, 12]. However, the densification mechanism of BaTiO3 films deposited by AD has yet to be identified. In this Go6983 molecular weight study, we applied 0.2-μm-thick BaTiO3 thin films deposited by AD onto an integrated

substrate suitable for thin-film IPDs. To overcome the macroscopic defects and rough interface between the BaTiO3 films and substrates, the influence of starting powders with difference particle sizes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and focused ion beam (FIB). In addition, the densification of AD-deposited BaTiO3 thin films and stronger particle-to-particle bonding could be obtained using rapid thermal annealing treatment. The surface morphology of post-annealed BaTiO3 thin films click here was examined using atom force Selleck Wortmannin microscopy (AFM) to reveal the effect of rapid thermal annealing (RTA)

treatment on leakage currents. Methods The AD method is a very attractive deposition process for integrating ceramic thin films. During the deposition process, the raw particles are mixed with a N2 carrier gas to form an aerosol flow and then ejected through a nozzle and coated onto the substrate in the deposition chamber at room BV-6 supplier temperature. The detailed fabrication apparatus has been described in elsewhere [14]. The BaTiO3 thin films were successfully deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si integrated substrates with a thickness of 200 nm and a deposition area of 10 × 10 mm2 using a similar AD apparatus in this paper. The thickness of the Pt/Ti layer is 150/10 nm. During the deposition process, to clarify the influence of the starting powder on the morphology of the bottom Pt interface, different BaTiO3 powders BT-045J and BT-03B (Samsung Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd., Ulsan, South Korea) with particle sizes of 0.45 and 0.30 μm, respectively, were used as starting powders. The surfaces of the as-deposited thin films were evaluated using SEM (S-4300SE; Hitachi Ltd, Tokyo, Japan), and the cross-section of the interface between the BaTiO3 thin films and Pt substrate deposited using different starting powders was observed using a FIB system (Nova 600 Nanolab, FEI, Hillsboro, OR, USA).