No / A small dielectric resonator antenna has been designed for ultra wideband (UWB) communication system applications. The antenna element is a rectangular low permittivity ceramic block, with a dielectric constant of 9.4, and the modified T-shaped feed network includes a 50 ohm microstrip line to achieve strong coupling, and some bandwidth enhancement. The antenna performance is simulated and measured over a frequency band extending from 3100 MHz to 5500 MHz; the impedance bandwidth over this interval is 55.8% with VSWR <; 2, making the antenna suitable for UWB applications.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis deals with the investigations on the dielectric properties of polycrystalline ceramics having uncommon substitutions in barium titanate and other related phases of BaTiO3-CaTiO3, MgTiO3-CaTiO3 and MgTiO3-BaTiO3 systems. After presenting a brief introduction on the ceramic materials studied in terms of their crystal structures, electrical properties, nonstoichiometry and microstructural characteristics. The thesis describes the synthesis of the ceramics and the methodology of different techniques utilized in characterizing the samples. Barium calcium titanate was synthesized through novel wet chemical techniques and the dielectric properties of calcium substituted barium titanate do not reveal multi-site occupancy whereas they are predominantly influenced by the A/B cationic ratio. The role of transition metals of the 3d series from vanadium (Z=23) to zinc (Z=30) in modifying the crystallographic phase content, microstructure and the dielectric properties of BaTiO3 ceramics containing 10 at% impurities were studied. All the transition metals brought about the phase conversion to hexagonal BaTiO3, although no systematics could be arrived at relating the hexagonal content to the 3d electronic configuration of the impurities. The relaxor dielectrics arising from the titanate solid solution with uncommon substitution and its interconversion to normal ferroelectrics is studied. The effects of cationic substitutions of iron and niobium for titanium in BaTiO3 pervoskite lattice in crystal symmetry and dielectric properties were investigated. The above dielectric characteristics are comparable in a converse way to those of the well known Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 system wherein the relaxor behaviour occurs within the lower lead titanate compositional limits. The modification in -T characteristics of positive temperature coefficient in resistance (PTCR) by the addition of segregative additives such as B2O3, Al2O3 etc in BaTiO3 and its conversion to grain boundary layer capacitance is studied. The presence of Al-related hole centers at the grain boundary regions resulted in charge redistribution across the modified phase transition temperatures due to symmetry-related vibronic interactions, which result in broad PTCR characteristics extending to higher temperatures. The processing of high permittivity ceramics by the manipulation of microstructural features in semiconducting BaTiO3 is studied wherein the grain boundary layer effect superimposed with the contributions from the barrier layers formed during electroding related to microstructure is proposed to be responsible for the unusual high permittivity in semiconducting BaTiO3. The influence of Mg2+ as a substituent in modifying the crystallographic phase contents, microstructure and the dielectric properties of (Ba1-xMgx)TiO3 ceramics, (x ranging from zero to 1.0 ) is studied. The results point to the dual occupancy of Mg2+ both in A and B sublattice and the role of oxygen vacancy as well as (Ti3+ –VO) defects in stabilization of hexagonal phase to lower temperatures. The microwave dielectrics of the BaMg6Ti6O19 phase formed in the compositional range of x=0.4 to 0.7 was investigated for suitable application in microwave dielectrics. Extensive miscibility between the ilmenite-type MgTiO3 and perovskite-type CaTiO3 over a wide compositional range is brought about by the simultaneous equivalent substitution of Al3+ and La3+. The resulting Mg1-(x+y)CaxLay)(Ti1-yAly)O3 ceramics exhibit improved microwave dielectric properties by way of high permittivity, low TCK and high quality factor. The elemental distribution reveals the complexity in the Mg/Ca distribution and its correlation with the solid state miscibility as well as dielectric properties. Microwave dielectric property of Mg4Al2Ti9O25 which is detected as secondary phase is studied in detail.

Plasma induced damage of ultra low-k (ULK) dielectrics is a common phenomenon in BEOL interconnects. The damage leads to an increase in k-value, which raises the RC delay, leading to increased power consumption and cross talk noise. Therefore, diverse repair and post etch treatments (PET) have been proposed to restore or reduce the ULK damage. However, current repair processes are usually based on non-plasma silylation, which suffers from limited chemistry diffusion into the ULK. Moreover, the conventional PET based on anisotropic plasma results in bottom vs. sidewall inhomogeneities of the structures (e.g. via and trench). To reduce these drawbacks, an organosilane downstream -plasma (DSP) was applied. This new application resulted in an increased resistance to ULK removal by fluorinated wet clean chemistries, preserving the ULK hydrophobicity, keeping its carbon content relatively high. The effective RC measured on 28 nm node patterned wafers treated with a DSP PET remains nevertheless comparable to the process of record (POR).

Electrically-small loop antennas are a complex topic, with many design concepts to consider, including: effective magnetic core permeability, antenna impedance, antenna radiation, surrounding medium effects, and optimization approaches. There is a plethora of literature available covering these subjects but many conflict, compete, or are overall lacking; this thesis seeks to compare and analyze literature then validate with measurements, allowing optimal design.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

We developed a model to investigate the dielectric properties of the BaTiO₃ − Bi(Zn₁/₂Ti₁/₂)O₃ (BT-BZT) solid solution, which is a relaxor ferroelectric and exhibits long range disorder. The model uses ab initio methods to determine all polarization states for every atomic configuration of 2 x 2 x 2 supercells of BT-BZT. Each supercell is placed on a lattice with an Ising-like interaction between neighboring cell polarizations. This method allows us to consider long range disorder, which is not possible with ab initio methods alone, and is required to properly understand relaxor ferroelectric materials. We analyze the Monte Carlo data for a single lattice configuration using the multiple histogram method, and develop a modified histogram technique to combine data from multiple lattice configurations. Our calculated values of dielectric constant, specific heat, and polarization agree reasonably well with experiment. / Graduation date: 2012

Transparent oxide semiconducting films have continued to receive considerable attention, from a fundamental and application-based point of view, primarily because of their useful fundamental properties. Of particular interest is zinc oxide (ZnO), an n-type semiconductor that exhibits excellent optical, electrical, catalytic and gas-sensing properties, and has many applications in various fields. In this work, thin film transistor (TFT) arrays based on ZnO have been prepared by reactive radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. Prior to the TFT fabrication, ZnO layers were sputtered on to glass and silicon substrates, and the deposition parameters optimised for electrical resistivities suitable for TFT applications. The sputtering process was carried out at room temperature with no intentional heating. The aim of this work is to prepare ZnO thin films with stable semiconducting electrical properties to be used as the active channel in TFTs; and to understand the role of intrinsic point defects in device performance and stability. The effect of oxygen (O2) adsorption on TFT device characteristics is also investigated. The structural quality of the material (defect type and concentration), electrical and optical properties (transmission/absorption) of semiconductor materials are usually closely correlated. Using the Vienna ab-initio simulation package (VASP), it is predicted that O2 adsorption may influence film transport properties only within a few atomic layers beneath the adsorption site. These findings were exploited to deposit thin films that are relatively stable in atmospheric ambient with improved TFT applications. TFTs incorporating the optimised layer were fabricated and demonstrated very impressive performance metrics, with effective channel mobilities as high as 30 cm2/V-1s-1, on-off current ratios of 107 and sub-threshold slopes of 0.9 – 3.2 V/dec. These were found to be dependent on film thickness (~15 – 60 nm) and the underlying dielectric (silicon dioxide (SiO2), gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3), yttrium oxide (Y2O3) and hafnium oxide (HfO2)). In this work, prior to sputtering the ZnO layer (using a ZnO target of 99.999 % purity), the sputtering chamber was evacuated to a base pressure ~4 x 10-6 Torr. Oxygen (O2) and argon (Ar) gas (with O2/Ar ratio of varying proportions) were then pumped into the chamber and the deposition process optimised by varying the RF power between 25 and 500 W and the O2/Ar ratio between 0.010 to 0.375. A two-level factorial design technique was implemented to test specific parameter combinations (i.e. RF power and O2/Ar ratio) and then statistical analysis was utilised to map out the responses. The ZnO films were sputtered on glass and silicon substrates for transparency and resistivity measurements, and TFT fabrication respectively. For TFT device fabrication, ZnO films were deposited onto thermally-grown silicon dioxide (SiO2) or a high-k dielectric layer (HfO2, Gd2O3 and Y2O3) deposited by a metal-organic chemical deposition (MOCVD) process. Also, by using ab initio simulation as implemented in the “Vienna ab initio simulation package (VASP)”, the role of oxygen adsorption on the electrical stability of ZnO thin film is also investigated. The results indicate that O2 adsorption on ZnO layers could modify both the electronic density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi level and the band gap of the film. This study is complemented by studying the effects of low temperature annealing in air on the properties of ZnO films. It is speculated that O2 adsorption/desorption at low temperatures (150 – 350 0C) induces variations in the electrical resistance, band gap and Urbach energy of the film, consistent with the trends predicted from DFT results.

Neste trabalho foram fabricados e caracterizados eletricamente capacitores MOS com óxido de silício ultrafino (2,6 nm) com porta de silício policristalino (Si-poli) P+ e N+. Os capacitores MOS com porta de Si-poli dopados com boro tiveram a estrutura Si-poli/SiO2/Si previamente implantada com nitrogênio nas doses de 1.10\'POT.13\', 1.10\'POT.14\', 1.10\'POT.15\' e 5.10\'POT.15\' at.cm-², com o pico da concentração de nitrogênio próximo à interface SiO2/Si. Os capacitores MOS foram fabricados sobre lâminas de silício do tipo p que passaram por uma limpeza química préoxidação tipo RCA mais imersão final em solução diluída em HF. Na seqüência, as lâminas foram oxidadas em um ambiente de O2 (1,5 l/min) + N2/H2 (2l/min; 10 %) que proporcionou óxidos de silício com excelentes características elétricas. Para a fabricação dos capacitores MOS com porta de Si-poli P+, utilizou-se SOG de boro seguido por difusão térmica sobre camada de Si-poli (340 nm). Após testes com receitas de difusão a 950, 1000, 1050 e 1100 °C todas padronizadas por um tempo de 30 min optamos por realizar a difusão a 1050 °C por 30 min, pois essa receita proporcionou concentração de boro superior a 1.10\'POT.20\' at.cm-³ e segregação desprezível do boro em direção ao substrato de Si. A dopagem dos capacitores MOS com porta de Si-poli N+ foi realizada por aplicação do SOG de fósforo seguido por difusão a 1050 °C por 30 min. Os resultados indicaram segregação do boro desprezível para o Si, baixa densidade de estados de interface (< 1.10\'POT.11\' eV-¹ cm-²) e no aumento do campo elétrico de ruptura (de 14 MV/cm para 21 MV/cm) com o aumento da dose de nitrogênio (de 1.10\'POT.13\' a 5.10\'POT.15\' at/cm²). Embora ocorresse uma maior dispersão e um aumento desfavorável da tensão de banda plana com o aumento da dose de nitrogênio, os valores 1.10\'POT.15\' e 5.10\'POT.15\' at.cm-² resultaram em capacitores MOS com tensão de faixa plana próxima ao parâmetro diferença de função trabalho (\'fi\' MS) significando densidade efetiva de cargas no dielétrico de porta inferior à cerca de 1.10\'POT.11\' cm-². / In this work we manufactured and electrically characterized MOS capacitors with ultrathin silicon oxides (2,6 nm) and polysilicon gate (Si-poli), P+ or N+. P+ - doped polysilicon gate MOS capacitors (Si-poli/SiO2/Si structure) were previously implanted with nitrogen using doses of 1.10\'POT.13\', 1.10\'POT.14\', 1.10\'POT.15\' and 5.10\'POT.15\' at.cm-², and implantation peak centered close to the SiO2/Si interface before boron doping. The MOS capacitors were fabricated on p-type silicon wafers, which were submitted to RCA - based cleaning procedure and a final dip in diluted HF solution. Following, the wafers were oxidize in ultrapure O2 (1,5 l/min) + N2/H2 (2l/min; 10 %) having, as a result, silicon gate oxides with excellent electrical characteristics. To obtain P+ polysilicon, it Spin On Glass (SOG) of boron the wafers was annealed at 950, 1000, 1050 or 1100 °C during 30 min. We have chosen a diffusion recipe of 1050 °C during 30 min to obtain volumetric concentration of boron higher than 1.10\'POT.20\' cm-³ and no boron segregation to the silicon. N+ polysilicon was also obtained using phosphorus SOG and diffusion at 1050 °C during 30 min. As a result, besides no boron segregation to Si, the interface states density was low (< 1.10\'POT.11\' eV-¹cm-²) and the breakdown field of the gate oxides increased (from 14 MV/cm to 21 MV/cm) by increasing the nitrogen doses (from 1.10\'POT.13\' to 5.10\'POT.15\' at/cm²). Although a larger dispersion and increasing of the flat-band voltage have occurred as the nitrogen dose was increased, values of 1.10\'POT.15\' and 5.10\'POT.15\' at.cm-² induced flat band voltage close to the parameter workfunction difference (\'fi\'MS) which meant effective charge density in the gate dielectrics lower than about 1.10\'POT.11\' cm-².