Characterization of PMMA/BaTiO₃ composite layers through printed capacitor structures for microwave frequency applications

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p>This paper presents the extraction of microwave properties of low-temperature cured inorganic composite materials based on barium titanate (BaTiO ₃ ). These composite materials exhibit attractive features such that when the volume fraction of the filler contents varied, its electrical properties of high permittivity and moderately low loss tangent can be manipulated to suit different areas of applications. For the extraction of the permittivity and the loss tangent, three different ink particles were developed and printed on the top of interdigital-shaped microwave capacitor. The properties of the inks were extracted from measured results through computer simulations. The obtained results were verified with several types of interdigital capacitor structures of different fingers and linewidths. The effect of the thickness of the ink layer materials on the top of the capacitor structures was likewise investigated. The results show relative permittivity (ε_r ) values of 30, 25, and 27 for composite layers printed using inks with Pr. A shape at 67.4 wt% (percentage by weight), Pr. B shape at 66.3 wt%, and Pr. C shape at 67.1 wt% of BaTiO₃, respectively, at 2 GHz. Corresponding loss tangents (tan δ) were 0.065, 0.040, and 0.025. The dielectric properties of the composite materials are influenced by the thickness variation of the ink layers on the capacitor structures. This novel capacitor composite materials would be a promising candidate for printed application in mobile telecommunication operations, especially in the frequency range of 0.5–3 GHz.</p></div>