In the ongoing quest to make electronic devices ever smaller and more energy efficient, researchers want to bring energy storage directly onto microchips, reducing the losses incurred when power is transported between various device components. To be effective, on-chip energy storage must be able to store a large amount of energy in a very small space and deliver it quickly when needed—requirements that can't be met with existing technologies.
Addressing this challenge, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have achieved record-high energy and power densities in microcapacitors made with engineered thin films of hafnium oxide and zirconium oxide, using materials and fabrication techniques already widespread in chip manufacturing.
The findings, published in Nature, pave the way for advanced on-chip energy storage and power delivery in next-generation electronics.
"We've shown that it's possible to store a lot of energy in micro capacitors made from engineered thin films, much more than what is possible with ordinary dielectrics," said Sayeed Salahuddin, the Berkeley Lab faculty senior scientist, and UC Berkeley professor who led the project. "What's more, we're doing this with a material that can be processed directly on top of microprocessors."
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