Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
Ferroelectric film-on-foil capacitors hold special promise to replace discrete passive components in the development of electronic devices that require greater performance and smaller size. We have grown ferroelectric Pb0.92La0.08Zr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PLZT) films on nickel substrates by chemical solution deposition. The dielectric properties were determined for samples of ≈1.15-μm-thick PLZT film grown on LaNiO3-buffered nickel substrates. Measurements on these samples yielded a dielectric constant of ≈1300, dielectric loss (tan δ) of ≈0.05, and leakage current density of ≈7 × 10-9 A/cm2. An energy density of ≈74 J/cm3 was measured at room temperature with 250-μm-diameter capacitors. Highly accelerated lifetime tests were conducted at 100°C to determine the reliability of the ≈1.15-μm-thick film-on-foil capacitors under field stress conditions (with applied electric field from 8.7 × 105 V/cm to 1.3 × 106 V/cm). The breakdown behavior of the PLZT film-on-foil capacitors was evaluated by Weibull analysis. A voltage acceleration factor of ≈-6.3 was obtained. From the test results, a mean time to failure of >3000 hr was projected for capacitors operated at 100°C with ≈2.6 × 105 V/cm dc electric field.