High-performance rectifiers fabricated on a flexible substrate

We report on the fabrication andtesting of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes on a flexible substrate where the thin insulating layer self-assembles as a monolayer sandwiched between the two metal electrodes. The current-voltage characteristic has a strong asymmetry and non-linearity at zero-bias. The diodes have a typical zero-biasresistance of 80  kΩ, a zero-bias curvature coefficient of 5.5 V−1, and a voltage responsivity of 3.1  kV/W at a frequency of 1 GHz. The fabrication yield was over 90%, and an encapsulation method to prevent MIM junction degradation has also been developed. The diodes show no significant degradation in performance when the substrate is stressed in a one-off bending experiment, although extensivetesting does produce some loss in quality. The fabrication process is simple, cost effective, and carried out at low temperature, opening up the possibility of roll-to-roll volumemanufacturing of fast MIM diodes.

Source: Applied Physics Letters - November 8, 2016 Category: Physics Authors: David Etor, Linzi E. Dodd, David Wood and Claudio Balocco Source Type: research