--- title: "New method accelerates CNF-MIM development" canonical_url: "https://www.smoltek.com/zapping-accelerates-cnf-mim-development/7917/" date: 2024-10-11 author: "Thomas Barregren" featured_image: "https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/zapping.webp" categories: - name: "IR Blog Posts" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/category/ir-blog-posts.md" tags: - name: "capacitors" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/capacitors.md" - name: "cnf-mim" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/cnf-mim.md" - name: "Smoltek Semi" url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/smoltek-semi.md" --- # New method accelerates CNF-MIM development While seek­ing buy­ers for our CNF-MIM tech­nol­o­gy, we con­tin­ue to refine our offer­ings. Recent­ly, we’ve made sig­nif­i­cant progress by tripling the capac­i­tance den­si­ty of our CNF-MIM capac­i­tors while halv­ing the leak­age cur­rent with a new [dielec­tric stack](https://www.smoltek.com/investors/blog/why-increased-capacitance-density-matter/7906/). To put this in per­spec­tive for non-experts, increased capac­i­tance den­si­ty means a greater abil­i­ty to store ener­gy in the form of elec­tric charge with­in the same vol­ume. Sim­i­lar­ly, reduced leak­age cur­rent means that the loss of stored ener­gy is reduced, mak­ing our capac­i­tors more efficient. Such advance­ments boost the appeal of our tech­nol­o­gy to poten­tial buy­ers. How­ev­er, break­throughs require exten­sive exper­i­men­ta­tion. To min­i­mize time-to-mar­ket, we need rapid exper­i­ment set­up capa­bil­i­ties. Man­u­fac­tur­ing full CNF-MIM capac­i­tors is time-con­sum­ing and cost­ly. For quick­er turn­around, we use par­al­lel plate capac­i­tors – sim­pler and cheap­er to pro­duce. Now, Smoltek Semi researchers have fur­ther accel­er­at­ed and econ­o­mized this process. ## [](https://www.smoltek.com#parallel-plate-capacitors-as-proxies)Parallel plate capacitors as proxies A par­al­lel plate capac­i­tor is the sim­plest form of capac­i­tor: two met­al plates sep­a­rat­ed by an insu­la­tor. CNF-MIM capac­i­tors share this basic struc­ture, but add car­bon nanofibers to increase the met­al sur­face area many times over. Both types con­sist of par­al­lel met­al sur­faces sep­a­rat­ed by a dielec­tric stack of uni­form thickness. We man­u­fac­ture par­al­lel plate capac­i­tors using the same meth­ods and mate­ri­als as CNF-MIM capac­i­tors, includ­ing cre­at­ing them on a sil­i­con wafer sub­strate. The only dif­fer­ence is that we omit the car­bon nanofiber steps for par­al­lel plate capac­i­tors. This sim­i­lar­i­ty in pro­duc­tion meth­ods, minus the nanofibers, makes par­al­lel plate capac­i­tors excel­lent sub­sti­tutes for test­ing CNF-MIM tech­nol­o­gy, as they mim­ic CNF-MIM capac­i­tors while being sim­pler and quick­er to produce. ## [](https://www.smoltek.com#simplifying-electrode-access)Simplifying electrode access Con­nect­ing a capac­i­tor requires access to both met­al plates, each of which is called an *elec­trode* in this con­text. The top elec­trode is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble, but the bot­tom elec­trode pos­es chal­lenges. It’s cov­ered by the top elec­trode and the dielec­tric stack, and can’t be accessed from below due to the substrate. Pre­vi­ous­ly, cre­at­ing an elec­tri­cal con­nec­tion to the bot­tom elec­trode required sev­er­al com­plex steps. Now, Smoltek Semi researchers use a method we call ”zap­ping” that sig­nif­i­cant­ly sim­pli­fies this process. While not a nov­el tech­nique in itself, it’s new for us to apply it in this con­text. The zap­ping method involves apply­ing a brief, high volt­age across spe­cif­ic con­tact points on a test capac­i­tor, cre­at­ing a con­trolled break­down in the insu­lat­ing lay­er. This tech­nique elim­i­nates the need for mul­ti­ple com­plex etch­ing steps, sig­nif­i­cant­ly stream­lin­ing the test­ing process. For those unfa­mil­iar with elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing, imag­ine try­ing to con­nect a wire to the bot­tom of a stack of sand­wich­es with­out dis­turb­ing the top lay­ers. The old method was like care­ful­ly cut­ting through each lay­er to reach the bot­tom. The new zap­ping method is more like using a focused beam of ener­gy to instant­ly melt a tiny, pre­cise hole through the lay­ers. This approach is much faster and caus­es min­i­mal dis­rup­tion to the over­all struc­ture, as it affects only a very small, con­trolled area. It’s worth not­ing that zap­ping is a devel­op­ment tool that sim­pli­fies CNF-MIM capac­i­tor char­ac­ter­i­za­tion. It’s not intend­ed for actu­al capac­i­tor production. ## [](https://www.smoltek.com#why-zapping-matters)Why zapping matters Zap­ping reduces sev­er­al fab­ri­ca­tion steps for test capac­i­tors, short­en­ing iter­a­tion time from a month to a week. This accel­er­a­tion allows more fre­quent test­ing of new con­fig­u­ra­tions, speed­ing up research and opti­miza­tion. It enables rapid eval­u­a­tion of mate­ri­als and design para­me­ters, focus­ing efforts on crit­i­cal com­po­nents like the dielec­tric stack with­out lengthy pro­duc­tion cycles. ## [](https://www.smoltek.com#business-impact)Business impact Zap­ping enhances Smoltek’s posi­tion by mak­ing devel­op­ment more cost-effi­cient and rapid. It reduces R&D expens­es, allow­ing more exper­i­ments and tech­nol­o­gy refine­ment with­out over­spend­ing. This accel­er­at­ed pace enables quick­er deliv­ery of pre­lim­i­nary results to poten­tial part­ners, main­tain­ing their engage­ment and interest. In nego­ti­a­tions, demon­strat­ing high-per­form­ing, cost-effec­tive tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment makes Smoltek a more attrac­tive part­ner. While zap­ping isn’t used in final pro­duc­tion, the abil­i­ty to iter­ate quick­ly ensures a reli­able, scal­able end prod­uct – key con­sid­er­a­tions for poten­tial cus­tomers seek­ing eas­i­ly inte­grat­ed solutions. ## [](https://www.smoltek.com#investor-perspective)Investor perspective For share­hold­ers, zap­ping trans­lates into a clear advan­tage: faster devel­op­ment cycles mean a short­er time-to-mar­ket for break­throughs, such as tripling the capac­i­tance den­si­ty and halv­ing the leak­age cur­rent, mak­ing CNF-MIM capac­i­tors even more attrac­tive to buyers. ## [](https://www.smoltek.com#accelerating-smart-development)Accelerating smart development Zap­ping sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces devel­op­ment time and costs, enabling faster iter­a­tion and main­tain­ing our com­mer­cial­iza­tion tra­jec­to­ry. It’s a prag­mat­ic approach that bol­sters our mar­ket posi­tion and enhances our appeal to poten­tial buyers.