Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
Monte Carlo simulations of capacitors with polycrystalline (Bax, Sr1−x)TiO3 (BST) dielectrics were performed. The variation in capacitors due to the polycrystalline microstructure of the dielectric was investigated, as well as the effects of varying the distribution of crystal sizes. When a lognormal probability density function (pdf) was used to approximate the crystal area pdf and the average number of crystals per capacitor was near 100, it was found that the minimum capacitance value was nearly independent of the standard deviation of crystal area distribution. Both the mean and maximum capacitance values were found to increase as the width of the standard deviation increased.