Enhanced Electrode Deposition for On-Chip Integrated Micro-Supercapacitors by Controlled Surface Roughening

On-chip micro-supercapacitors (MSCs), integrated with energy harvesters, hold substantial promise for developing self-powered wireless sensor systems. However, MSCs have conventionally been manufactured through techniques incompatible with semiconductor fabrication technology, the most significant bottleneck being the electrode deposition technique. Utilization of spin-coating for electrode deposition has shown potential to deliver several complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible MSCs on a silicon substrate. Yet, their limited electrochemical performance and yield over the substrate have remained challenges obstructing their subsequent integration. We report a facile surface roughening technique for improving the wafer yield and the electrochemical performance of CMOS-compatible MSCs, specifically for reduced graphene oxide as an electrode material. A 4 nm iron layer is deposited and annealed on the wafer substrate to increase the roughness of the surface. In comparison to standard nonroughened MSCs, the increase in surface roughness leads to a 78% increased electrode thickness, 21% improvement in mass retention, 57% improvement in the uniformity of the spin-coated electrodes, and a high yield of 87% working devices on a 2″ silicon substrate. Furthermore, these improvements directly translate to higher capacitive performance with enhanced rate capability, energy, and power density. This technique brings us one step closer to fully integrable CMOS-compatible MSCs in self-powered systems for on-chip wireless sensor electronics.