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Silica Aerogel: An Intrinsically Low Dielectric Constant Material

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Lawrence W. Hrubesh
Lawrence W. Hrubesh*
Affiliation:
Chemistry and Material Science Department, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Box 808, Livermore, California 94550
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Abstract

Silica aerogels are highly porous solids having unique morphologies in which both the pores and particles have sizes less than the wavelength of visible light. This fine nanostructure modifies the normal transport mechanisms within aerogels and endows them with a variety of exceptional physical properties. For example, aerogels have the lowest measured thermal conductivity and dielectric constant for any solid material. The intrinsically low dielectric properties of silica aerogels are the direct result of the extremely high achievable porosities, which are controllable over a range from 75% to more than 99.8%, and which result in measured dielectric constants from 2.0 to less than 1.01. This paper discusses the synthesis of silica aerogels, processing them as thin films, and characterizing their dielectric properties. Existing data and other physical characteristics of bulk aerogels (e.g., thermal stablity, thermal expansion, moisture adsorption, modulus, dielectric strength, etc.), which are useful for evaluating them as potential dielectrics for microelectronics, are also given.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 381: Symposium F – Low-Dielectric Constant Materials--Synthesis and Applications in Micro. , 1995 , 267
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

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