Center Smart Materials and Adaptive Systems CeSMADue to the inorganic silicon-oxidic part of hybrid polymers, the materials behave similar to SiOx. In consequence, the material shows excellent dielectric properties such as high dielectric strengths, low leakage currents and high resistivities. The permittivity can be adjusted towards low-k for passivation and high frequency applications and high-k for capacitive applications. In contrast to inorganic dielectrics, hybrid polymers are processed like organic polymers or resist materials.
Whereas hybrid polymers in microelectronic applications are used as interlayer dielectric, passivation material or encapsulation material, the high dielectric strength and the high thermal stability (compared to other insulating polymers) make them also attractive for applications in power electronics.
Since the material can be cured at moderate temperatures, it is also well suited for temperature-sensitive substrates such as used in the field of printed electronics. The application as gate dielectric with printable organic semiconductor or inorganic semiconductor (such as IGZO) was demonstrated as well.
Inorganic-organic hybrid polymer dielectrics are highly transparent and can also be used for transparent electronics.