Lateral programmable metallization cell devices and applications

Programmable Metallization Cell (PMC) is a technology platform which utilizes mass transport in solid or liquid electrolyte coupled with electrochemical (redox) reactions to form or remove nanoscale metallic electrodeposits on or in the electrolyte. The ability to redistribute metal mass and form metallic nanostructure in or on a structure in situ, via the application of a bias on laterally placed electrodes, creates a large number of promising applications. A novel PMC-based lateral microwave switch was fabricated and characterized for use in microwave systems. It has demonstrated low insertion loss, high isolation, low voltage operation, low power and low energy consumption, and excellent linearity. Due to its non-volatile nature the switch operates with fewer biases and its simple planar geometry makes possible innovative device structures which can be potentially integrated into microwave power distribution circuits. PMC technology is also used to develop lateral dendritic metal electrodes. A lateral metallic dendritic network can be grown in a solid electrolyte (GeSe) or electrodeposited on SiO2 or Si using a water-mediated method. These dendritic electrodes grown in a solid electrolyte (GeSe) can be used to lower resistances for applications like self-healing interconnects despite its relatively low light transparency; while the dendritic electrodes grown using water-mediated method can be potentially integrated into solar cell applications, like replacing conventional Ag screen-printed top electrodes as they not only reduce resistances but also are highly transparent. This research effort also laid a solid foundation for developing dendritic plasmonic structures. A PMC-based lateral dendritic plasmonic structure is a device that has metallic dendritic networks grown electrochemically on SiO2 with a thin layer of surface metal nanoparticles in liquid electrolyte. These structures increase the distribution of particle sizes by connecting pre-deposited Ag nanoparticles into fractal structures and result in three significant effects, resonance red-shift, resonance broadening and resonance enhancement, on surface plasmon resonance for light trapping simultaneously, which can potentially enhance thin film solar cells' performance at longer wavelengths.