Fabrication and characterization of thermally drawn fiber capacitors

• Main Authors: Lestoquoy, Guillaume (Contributor), Wang, Zheng (Contributor), Fink, Yoel (Contributor), Chocat, Noemie (Contributor), Joannopoulos, John (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics (Contributor), Joannopoulos, John D. (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics (AIP), 2013-08-08T17:53:12Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We report on the fabrication of all-in-fiber capacitors with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as the dielectric material. Electrodes made of conductive polymer are separated by a PVDF thin film within a polycarbonate casing that is thermally drawn into multiple meters of light-weight, readily functional fiber. Capacitive response up to 20 kHz is measured and losses at higher-frequencies are accounted for in a materials-based model. A multilayered architecture in which a folded PVDF film separates interdigitated electrodes over an increased area is fabricated. This structure greatly enhances the capacitance, which scales linearly with the fiber length and is unaffected by fiber dimension fluctuations.
National Science Foundation (U.S.). Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Program) (Award DMR- 0819762)
United States. Army Research Office (Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies) (Contract W911NF-07-D-0004)