Permittivities of Ultra-Low Dielectric Silica Beads and Aerogels

Abstract:

Materials with relative permittivity or dielectric constant near to that of air (εr~1) are known as ‘ultra-low k’ materials. They find a number of applications in inter-connects of micro-electronic circuits, antennae, high-speed communication substrates etc. Among the inorganic materials, porous silica is the widely studied candidate. Porous silica can be of many types depending upon the extent of porosity and size and connectivity of pores. This paper presents the details of measurement of permittivities and the results of silica beads and silica aerogels. Silica beads, prepared by microwave heating of silica gels, are spherical beads of average 1mm size. Hydrophobic silica aerogels, prepared by ambient pressure drying of silica gels, are irregular chunks of 5-10 mm size. Both are potential bulk fill insulation materials and hence the permittivity can be measured as an aggregate filling a definite volume. The permittivities of these have been measured upto 1 MHz by 3-terminal method using a precision LCR meter and a powder-paste cell as per ASTM-D150-11. The εr values of silica aerogels and silica beads in 20 Hz-1 MHz range could be measured and are less than 1.6 at 1 MHz.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volumes 830-831)
• Pages: 444-447
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.830-831.444
• Online since: September 2015
• Authors: S. Nagapriya, B. Masin, H. Sreemoolanadhan, M.R. Ajith, Mariamma Mathew, S.C. Sharma
• Keywords: Aerogel, Beads, Macrospheres, Measurement, Permittivity, Silica, Ultra-Low Dielectric

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