Stacked on-chip supercapacitors for extreme environments

Abstract

Miniaturization and reliability in an extreme temperature environment are vital in designing modern electronic components. Likely, the requirement for micron-sized on-chip power sources that can meet the power demands and perform under elevated environmental conditions is inevitable. Herein we are reporting a layer by layer application of a supercapacitor on top of a silicon substrate that can function between −20 °C and 60 °C by carefully choosing the design, materials for the electrode and electrolyte components and fabrication protocol. Existing micro-supercapacitor architectures such as the in-plane configuration are compared with indigenously designed architectures such as a floating electrode and stacked electrode configurations. The stacked configuration is found to be a promising model and the devices developed were electrochemically characterized by cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, galvanostatic charge–discharge cycles at different temperatures and leakage current tests. By mere scaling up of the electrode configuration, the developed architecture can be of use to make conventional supercapacitors that are functional at elevated temperatures.