Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01872-2 Fabrication of BaTiO 3 ‑based thin flm heterostructures with ring electrodes by low cost deposition techniques Jelena Vukmirović 1  · Andrea Nesterović 1  · Ivan Stijepović 1  · Marija Milanović 1  · Nejra Omerović 2  · Branimir Bajac 2  · Jelena Bobić 3  · Vladimir V. Srdić 1 Received: 25 April 2019 / Accepted: 10 July 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract In this paper the fabrication of BaTiO 3 -based thin flm heterostructures with ring silver electrodes by low cost deposition tech- niques was investigated. BaTiO 3 , Ba 1−x Sr x TiO 3 (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) and BaTi 1−x Zr x O 3 (x = 0.1, 0.2) thin flms for potential application in microwave technologies were prepared by chemical solution deposition method on Pt-coated silicon substrates and sintered at diferent temperatures. The prepared flms were examined by SEM, AFM, XRD and Raman spectroscopy in order to study the infuence of dopants on microstructure and phase changes. Dielectric and ferroelectric properties of the doped BaTiO 3 thin flms were also investigated to fnd the optimal composition and structure for tunable application. Com- plex shaped silver electrodes suitable for measurements of tunability at GHz frequencies were prepared by inkjet printing method. The electrodes with circular shape were printed on the surface of BaTiO 3 based thin flms by Dimatix inkjet printer. Precision limits of the method and the infuence of printing conditions on electrode size and quality were also investigated. 1 Introduction Development of thin flm tunable microwave devices has two important directions: (i) selecting of appropriate material with desirable properties at room temperature in GHz fre- quency region and (ii) designing of complex multi-layered architectures suitable for tunable measurement and applica- tion [1]. Ferroelectric BaTiO 3 based thin flms, where part of Ba 2+ or/and Ti 4+ ions is substituted by another divalent or tetravalent cations, such as Sr 2+ , Ca 2+ , Zr 4+ , Sn 4+ etc., are recognized as materials with potential application in microwave technologies. Dopants modify the structure of BaTiO 3 , as well as dielectric properties by decreasing tem- perature of ferroelectric/paraelectric phase transition (T c ) down to the room temperature. Currently, barium strontium titanate (BST) is the most investigated ferroelectric mate- rial for tunable application due to the reasonable values of feld-dependent permittivity and low dielectric losses [1–3]. On the other hand, bulk barium zirconate titanate (BTZ) has attracted interest due to very good dielectric properties near the room temperature. Possibility to control ferroelectric properties of BTZ by controlling composition ofers wide spectra of applications including microwave technologies [4, 5]. However, literature data for BTZ thin flm properties are still very scarce [6, 7]. A large number of diferent techniques is used for prepa- ration of BaTiO 3 based thin flms (as a functional layer), as well as complex shaped electrodes in order to obtain com- plicated architectures for tunable measurements and applica- tions [6–11]. Low-cost deposition techniques which can pro- vide properties of functional layers and electrodes similar to designs prepared by complicated and expensive techniques are always attractive. BST thin flms prepared by chemical solution deposition (CSD) were often investigated and lit- erature ofers a lot of data for better understanding process- ing-structure correlation [10–13]. Answering the increasing need for fully printed electronics, in our previous research, inkjet printing turned out as a useful technique for prepara- tion of BaTiO 3 thin flms [14, 15]. Main advantages of inkjet printing include contact- and mask-less production of vari- ous diferent geometries, less waste of materials and faster production of multilayered structures in comparison with conventional methods [15–18]. Even though advantages * Vladimir V. Srdić srdicvv@uns.ac.rs 1 Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Technology Novi Sad, University of Novi Sad, Bul. Cara Lazara 1, Novi Sad 21000, Serbia 2 Institute Biosense, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia 3 Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia