Processing technologies for high-permittivity thin films in capacitor applications

Capacitor technologies are as varied as the applications that they enable, but one of the common themes in advanced capacitors for consumer electronics is a desire for increased capacitance in smaller areas/volumes. The heroic advances of discrete capacitor manufacturers have kept pace with the increasing demands of miniaturization, but a time is quickly approaching when it appears that powder-based fabrication techniques simply will not be able to achieve desired layer thicknesses and capacitance densities. Here, we review the current state of the art and recent advances in the processing science and technology of high-permittivity thin films with a focus on industrially scalable solution-based fabrication processes of perovskite ferroelectric systems that appear to offer the greatest promise for the fabrication of future nanoscale capacitors.