Please consider attending the following: MATERIALS ENGINEERING SEMINAR "Improving Properties of Thin Polymer Dielectrics for Capacitor Applications" By Carlos A. Serratos Purdue MSE Ph.D. Preliminary Exam Advisor: Professor Mukerrem Cakmak ABSTRACT Capacitors are a common and widely used device used for storage of electrical energy. Thin polymer films are often used as a dielectric material due to easy processability, lighter weight, and high-quality mechanical properties, having more flexibility compared to nonorganic materials. However, polymer dielectrics tend to have the disadvantage of lower thermal conductivities and lower dielectric constants. Furthermore, dielectric breakdown - the phenomenon at which electrically insulating materials become conductive - is a mechanism that is not fully understood. Understanding the dielectric breakdown in polymer films will lead to additional improvements of the dielectric properties of these polymers. Several methods have been studied to improve the polymer film's dielectric properties, including the addition of nanofillers within the polymer matrix, or forming multilayers of different polymers as a dielectric. One method in this study is the addition of a functional coating of a nonorganic dielectric material on top of the thin polymer film. Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is a possible method to achieve this. ALD has been used to deposit nonorganic material onto polymer substrates before, although its use is common as a diffusion barrier, while studies on ALD on polymer substrates for dielectrics has not been seen. A review on the literature of ALD on polymers - along with alternative methods for thin film deposition - has been compiled and presented here as a possible method to improve the dielectric properties of thin polymer films. Date: Tuesday, February 26, 2019 Time: 9:30 A.M. Place: ARMS 3115