Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of the European Ceramic Society 30 (2010) 365–368 Development of PLZT dielectrics on base metal foils for embedded capacitors  U. Balachandran ∗ , D.K. Kwon 1 , M. Narayanan, B. Ma Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, United States Available online 2 June 2009 Abstract We have deposited Pb 0.92 La 0.08 Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 (PLZT) films on nickel and copper substrates to create film-on-foil capacitors that exhibit excellent dielectric properties and superior breakdown strength. Measurements with PLZT films on LaNiO 3 -buffered Ni foils yielded the following: relative permittivity of 1300 (at 25 ◦ C) and 1800 (at 150 ◦ C), leakage current density of 6.6 × 10 -9 A/cm 2 (at 25 ◦ C) and 1.4 × 10 -8 A/cm 2 (at 150 ◦ C), and mean breakdown field strength ≈2.5 MV/cm. With PLZT deposited directly on Cu foils, we observed dielectric constant ≈1100, dielectric loss (tan δ) ≈0.06, and leakage current density of 7.3 × 10 -9 A/cm 2 when measured at room temperature. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Ferroelectric film; PLZT; Dielectric property; Chemical solution deposition 1. Introduction The development of power electronic devices with improved performance, increased reliability, small size, and reduced weight requires the passive components to be embedded within a printed wire board (PWB). This technology could free up surface space, increase device reliability, and minimize electromag- netic interference and inductance loss. Although the technology has primarily received attention for decoupling capacitors in microelectronic applications, 1–3 it can also be extended to high- power applications at higher voltages, such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. However, the integration of high-permittivity films into PWBs is a difficult task because of the incompat- ibility in the processing conditions for the different materials involved. Polymer layers in a PWB cannot withstand the high temperatures (600–800 ◦ C) required for processing the ceramic  The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Depart- ment of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others act- ing on its behalf, a paid-up nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the government. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 630 252 4250; fax: +1 630 252 3604. E-mail address: balu@anl.gov (U. Balachandran). 1 Current address: Materials Engineering Department, Korea Aerospace Uni- versity, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. film dielectrics to obtain the desired crystalline structures. Development of these crystalline structures becomes extremely challenging at reduced processing temperatures. 4 However, suc- cess has been demonstrated through a film-on-foil approach where the ceramic dielectrics are first coated on a thin base metal foil by chemical solution deposition and then crystallized at high temperature. 5–10 These coated foils can subsequently be embedded into a PWB. Kingon and Srinivasan 5 reported the deposition of PZT (52/48) films directly on copper foils using a complex heat-treatment process and obtained dielectric constant of ≈1100 and loss <5%. Maria et al. 7 reported fab- rication of PLZT (15/52/48) on nickel plated copper foils that achieved capacitance density of 350 nF/cm 2 and loss of 2%. Zou et al. 8 reported growth of PZT on various metal substrates and observed dielectric constant up to ≈450. In this paper, we report our recent results on the dielectric properties of PLZT film capacitors deposited on nickel and copper foils. 2. Experiment Prior to being coated, the base metal (Ni or Cu) substrates were polished with diamond paste to 1-m finish, ultrasonically cleaned in distilled water, and then wipe-cleaned with acetone and methanol using Texwipe Alpha swabs. LaNiO 3 (LNO) and Pb 0.92 La 0.08 Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 (PLZT 8/52/48) precursor solutions were prepared by a modified 2-methoxyethanol synthesis route. 8 Detailed experimental conditions were reported earlier. 9 For 0955-2219/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2009.05.006