Ultra-thin, self-healing decoupling capacitors on thin glass interposers using high surface area electrodes

This paper presents a novel set of low-cost materials and processes to fabricate thinfilm decoupling capacitors on silicon and glass substrates, using printed valve-metal electrodes. The valve-metals such as Al and Ta allow for easy formation of conformal, robust and high insulation-strength dielectrics. By utilizing self-healing counter electrodes, high yield with low leakage currents were demonstrated. Such a thinfilm capacitor processing is compatible with large-area, high through-put glass substrates with through-vias. The process, therefore, allows double-side passive or active component integration in ultrathin substrates, leading to a unique and novel passive and active component integration technology referred to as 3D IPAC (3-Dimensional Integrated Actives and Passive components) for miniaturized and complete power or RF modules.