Base metal bottom electrodes

Integrating electroceramic thin films with inexpensive base metal flexible substrates opens new possibilities for realistic mass production of functional oxide thin film technology. Not only do such substrates significantly reduce raw material costs, their flexible nature enables rapid, low-cost roll-to-roll processing. However, integrating an oxide with a base metal is a true scientific challenge. How can an oxide thin film be crystallized without oxidizing the base metal? One possibility is to imitate multilayer capacitor technology and crystallize the film using temperature and oxygen partial pressure (pO₂) conditions that provide thermodynamic equilibrium between the oxide and base metal. Unfortunately, this is not possible for all desired oxide constituents (e.g. PbO, Bi₂O₃). In these cases, the low processing temperatures of a chemical solution deposition method provide another avenue to integration: kinetic avoidance of substrate oxidation. To maintain high quality oxide films at low processing temperatures requires an understanding of chelation chemistry and gel-to-ceramic conversion. This chapter addresses both the thermodynamic equilibrium and kinetic method for integrating chemical solution processed functional oxide films on base metal electrodes and provides the reader with insights into how this state-of-the-art technology is revolutionizing the commercializability of thin film electroceramics.