Novel Nanostructured Passives for RF and Power Applications: Nanopackaging with Passive Components

Miniaturization of passive components, while mounting them close to the active devices to form ultrathin high-performance power and RF modules, is a key enabler for next-generation multifunctional miniaturized systems. Traditional microscale materials do not lead to adequate enhancement in volumetric densities to miniaturize passive components as thin films or thin integrated passive devices. With these materials, component miniaturization also degrades performance metrics such as quality factor, leakage current, tolerance, and stability. Nanomaterials such as nanocomposite dielectrics and magneto-dielectrics, nanostructured electrodes, and the resulting thin-film components have the potential to address this challenge. This chapter describes the key opportunities in nanomaterials and nanostructures for power and RF passive components. The first part of this chapter describes the role of nanostructured materials for high-density capacitors and inductors in power modules. The second part of the chapter describes application of nanoscale materials as nanocomposite dielectrics and magneto-dielectrics with stable and high permeability and permittivity for miniaturized RF modules.