Re: More on breakdown in thin films

To: tesla-at-grendel.objinc-dot-com
Subject: Re: More on breakdown in thin films
From: nvv-at-mlb.semi.harris-dot-com (Nick van Vonno)
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 95 08:29:51 EDT
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Cc: nvv-at-mlb.semi.harris-dot-com



Well, in the semiconductor industry we use _thin_ films of thermally grown
silicon dioxide and yes, those can be run at 10kV/mil if you are willing
to accept reduced lifetime. A more realistic figure is 5kV/mil or 
2 megavolts/cm which is the usual unit. Don't forget these are dense, very
low defect density oxides. Bulk SiO2 would not do as well, and a sputtered 
film will not either. 


nvv







> From grendel!grendel.objinc-dot-com!tesla-at-ns-1.csn-dot-net Mon Apr 10 18:47:17 1995
> Date: Mon, 10 Apr 1995 16:00:10 +0700
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>         kdg128-at-batoche.usask.ca, kukkonen-at-alpha.hut.fi,
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> Subject:  More on breakdown in thin films
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> >From EDHARRIS-at-MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU Mon Apr 10 15:16 MDT 1995
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> Date: Sun, 09 Apr 1995 23:04:28 -0400 (EDT)
> From: EDHARRIS-at-MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU
> Subject: More on breakdown in thin films
> To: tesla-at-grendel.objinc-dot-com
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> Just another little tidbit.
> 
> 	I found some information on the breakdown voltages of sputtered 
> thin films of SiO2 (Quartz) used in the semiconductor industry. THey easily 
> get 10,000 volts/mil (YES, that's TEN_THOUSAND!!!) for thicknesses of 
> around a micron. That's 10 times the "bulk" breakdown for almost anything.
> 
> 	Also, with diminished thickness, they seem not to have so many 
> problems with the frequency dependence of the breakdown. The FET's in your 
> 100Mhz Pentium withstand huge breakdown fields at dc-100Mhz.
> 
> 	I want to make a test cap made from series stacks of thin film caps 
> to see if this has any real potential, but I don't have a coil to test it 
> on. Anybody know of somebody with a coil in central Ohio or Kentucky?
> 
> 
> -Ed
> 
>