On-Chip High-Power Supply Unit: Micro Supercapacitor With Superb Capacitance Density and Fast Charge/Discharge Ability

Stable working voltage is critical for integrated systems to keep functioning, yet it suffered from instantaneous high-power demands and the resulting voltage disturbance. An on-chip micro supercapacitor (MSC) with superb capacitance density can act as a promising high-power supply unit to satisfy power demands and stabilize the system. However, severe capacitance decay of MSC under fast charge/discharge rate greatly weakens the device power output thus making it incompetent. This work demonstrates an on-chip high-power MSC featured by the improved capacitance density, fast charge/discharge ability and scaling-down capability. The improvement is brought by the applied mesoporous gold as electrode framework, which offers fast electronic/ionic pathway and reduces porous effect under high charge/discharge rate; as well as the uniform MnO (2) active layer, which is decorated by an electrochemical potential-modulated deposition method, providing large pseudocapacitance. Moreover, the asymmetric electrode structure is constructed to expand the single device operation voltage. As a result, a large steady capacitance density of 9 mF/cm(2) and small capacity loss of 28% at high scan rate of 1 V/s have been achieved, leading to an unprecedented power density of 138 mW/cm (2).

Automated summary

This research presents an improved on-chip micro supercapacitor with enhanced capacitance density, fast charge/discharge ability, and scalability, achieved through the use of mesoporous gold electrode framework and uniform MnO(2) active layer.