Precursor compositions for the deposition of passive electronic features

Abstract

Precursor compositions for the fabrication of electronic features such as resistors and capacitors. The precursor compositions are formulated to have a low conversion temperature, such as not greater than about 350° C., thereby enabling the fabrication of such electronic features on a variety of substrates, including organic substrates such as polymer substrates.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation application of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 286,363, filed Nov. 1, 2002, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 338,797 filed Nov. 2, 2001. This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 265,296 entitled “PRECURSOR COMPOSITIONS FOR THE DEPOSITION OF ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE FEATURES” and filed on Oct. 4, 2002. Each of the foregoing referenced patent applications is incorporated by reference herein as if set forth in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to precursor compositions that are useful for the deposition of electronic features such as resistors and capacitors. The precursor compositions can have a low conversion temperature to enable low-temperature treatment of the compositions to form passive electronic features on a variety of substrates. [0004] 2. Desc...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0175] The precursor compositions of the present invention can also include rheology modifiers such as additives that have a thickening effect on the liquid vehicle. The advantageous effects of these additives include improved particle dispersion, reduced settling of particles, and reduction or elimination of filter pressing during syringe dispensing or screen-printing. Rheology modifiers can include SOLTHIX 250 (Avecia Limited), styrene allyl alcohol, ethyl cellulose, carboxy methylcellulose, nitrocellulose, polyalkylene carbonates, ethyl nitrocellulose, and the like.

[0176] One difficulty that can arise with respect to the precursor compositions of the present invention is that during drying, the molecular precursors can crystallize and form large crystallites, which can be detrimental to performance of the converted material. This problem can be reduced or eliminated by adding small amounts of a crystallization-inhibiting agent to the precursor composition. It has been found, for example, that in some silver precursor solutions small additions of lactic acid completely prevent crystallization. In other cases, such as aqueous Cu-formate compositions, small amounts of glycerol can inhibit crystallization. Other compounds useful for inhibiting crystallization are lactic acid, other polyalcohols such as malto dextrin, sodium carboxymethylcellulose and polyoxyethylenephenylether such as TRITON (Mallinckadt Baker, Phillipsburg, N.J.) or IGEPAL (Rhone-Poulenc, Cranbury, N.J.). In general, solvents with a higher melting point and lower vapor pressure inhibit crystallization of a compound more than a lower melting point solvent with a higher vapor pressure. Preferably, not greater than about 10 wt. % crystallization inhibitor (as a percentage of the total precursor solution) is added to a precursor solution, more preferably not greater than 5 wt. % and even more preferably not greater than 2 wt. %.

[0177] According to certain embodiments of the present invention, the precursor composition can be selected to reduce the conversion temperature required to convert the molecular precursor compound to the desired phase in the electronic feature. The precursor compound converts at a low temperature by itself or in combination with other precursors and provides for a high yield of the desired material. As used herein, the conversion temperature is the temperature at which the metal species contained in the precursor composition, including the molecular precursor, is at least 95 percent converted to the final pure metal or metal oxide. The conversion temperature is measured using a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) technique wherein a 50-milligram sample is heated at a rate of 10° C / minute in air and the weight loss is measured.

[0178] A preferred approach for reducing the conversion temperature according to the present invention is to bring the molecular metal precursor compound into contact with a conversion reaction inducing agent. As used herein, a conversion reaction inducing agent is a chemical compound that effectively reduces the temperature at which the molecular precursor compound decomposes to the metal or metal oxide. The conversion reaction inducing agent can either be added into the original precursor composition or added in a separate step during conversion on the substrate. The former method is preferred. Preferably, the conversion temperature of the precursor compound can be lowered by at least about 25° C., more preferably at least about 50° C, even more preferably about 100° C., as compared to the conversion of the dry precursor compound.

[0179] The reaction inducing agent can be the solvent or vehicle that is used for the precursor composition. For example, the addition of certain alcohols, can reduce the conversion temperature of the precursor composition.

[0180] Preferred alcohols for use as conversion reaction inducing agents according to certain embodiments of the present invention include terpineol and diethyleneglycol butylether (DEGBE). It will be appreciated that the alcohol can also be the vehicle, such as in the case of terpineol.

Problems solved by technology

However, mixing rules for multi-component dielectric layers dictate the intrinsic limitations of this approach.

Hence, there is very limited use of PTF for capacitors, particularly for stable, high performance components.

Traditional hybrid technologies also have serious limitations for today's demanding resistor applications.

Screen-printed thick-film resistors for example have wide-ranging values, but their short current paths and the inherent limitations of the screen-printing resolution severely compromise their performance characteristics.

Thin-film resistors, while capable of high precision, are expensive to design and manufacture and have their own limitations in terms of obtainable resistance values.

This is a serious challenge, as pure materials with suitable and reliable electrical behavior typically have resistivities below about 10−6 Ωm.

Unfortunately, there are no pure single-phase materials that provide optimum properties for ohmic resistors.

However, materials to form dielectrics and resistors are not disclosed.

However, these compositions are not designed for fine feature sizes such as those have a resolution of less than 200 μm.

Polymer thick film also has limited performance and suffers from poor stability in changing environments.

Images