Abstract

Both diamond-like carbon and polycrystalline diamond films have been obtained with resistivities exceeding 10’° ohm-cm and dielectric constants of 4.0 and 5.8, respectively. These films are chemically inert and have great mechanical hardness, high melting points and high thermal conductivity. The combination of these properties suggests their use as capacitor dielectrics for monolithic circuits destined for high-voltage and high-temperature operation. Parallel plate capacitors formed with 0.5 μm diamond-like carbon films exhibit capacitances of 13 nF cm^-2 and interdigitated capacitors fabricated on thick (>300 μm) polycrystalline diamond films provide typical capacitance values of around 100 pF cm^-2. The equivalent series resistances at low frequencies (10²-10³ Hz) of these capacitors in both cases have been found to be low making them potentially useful in filter circuit applications.