Investigation of palladium current collectors for vertical graphene-based microsupercapacitors

As microsystems are reduced in size and become integrated in the Internet of Things (IoT), they require an adequate power supply which can be integrated at the same size scale. Microsupercapacitors (MSCs), if coupled with on-chip harvesters, can offer solutions for a self-sustaining, on-chip power supply. However, the implementation of reliable MSC wafer-scale production compatible with CMOS technology remains a challenge. Palladium (Pd) is known as a CMOS compatible metal and, in this paper, we investigate the use of Pd as a contact material for vertical graphene (VG) electrodes in wafer-scale MSC fabrication. We show that a Ti diffusion barrier is required to prevent short-circuiting for the successful employment of Pd contacts. The fabricated MSCs demonstrate a capacitance of 1.3 μF/cm2 with an energy density of 0.42 μJ/cm2. Thus, utilization of a Ti diffusion barrier with a CMOS compatible Pd metal electrode is a step towards integrating MSCs in semiconductor microsystems.