PMMA-SiO2 organic–inorganic hybrid films: determination of dielectric characteristics

• DOI: 10.1007/s10971-010-2380-9
• Publication Date: 2011-01-05T20:23:06Z
• Authors: M. D. Morales-Acosta; M. A. Quevedo-López; Bruce E. Gnade; R. Ramírez-Bon
• Keywords: Hybrid material; Spin Coating

Organic–inorganic hybrid thin films have been prepared by a modified sol–gel route using tetraethyl orthosilicate as the inorganic (silica) source, methyl methacrylate (MMA) as the organic source, and 3-trimetoxysilylpropyl methacrylate as the coupling agent. The films were prepared by spin coating on Si (100) p-type substrates and subsequently heat-treated at 90 °C. Fourier transform infrared results reveal a set of absorption bands associated with the formation of both PMMA and SiO2 phases in the hybrid films. Capacitance–voltage (C–V) characterization was carried out on metal-insulator-metal (MIM) and metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures, with the hybrid films as the insulator layer to evaluate the electrical properties. We present a detailed comparative analysis of the dielectric constant obtained from C–V characterization in the frequency range of 1 kHz–1 MHz. For the PMMA-SiO2 hybrid material the dielectric constant values obtained were around 9.5 at 1 MHz which is superior to the values reported for thermally grown SiO2 and pure PMMA materials. The interface state density for PMMA-SiO2 on Si was approximately 1010 cm−2, which is comparable to the standard SiO2/Si structures. Due to the electrical behavior and low processing temperatures this hybrid dielectric is a very promising candidate for flexible electronic devices and its subsequent implementation does not require complex equipment.