Fabrication of microcapacitors using conducting polymer microelectrodes

Conducting polymer microcapacitors are fabricated by means of photolithography and electrochemical polymerization techniques. Gold or platinum microelectrode arrays are prepared by UV photolithography and a wet etching method. Conducting polymers such as polypyrrole (PPy) and poly-(3-phenylthiophene) (PPT) are synthesized potentiostatically on these microelectrodes. A microcapacitor is made up of 50 parallel-connected pairs of microelectrodes. The width of the microelectrodes and the distance between them are both 50 pm. Three types of cell are constructed in aqueous and non-aqueous electrolytes, and cell potentials between 0.6 and 1.4 V can be obtained depending upon the type of conducting polymers and electrolytes. Cell capacitance can be controlled easily by the total synthesis charge of the conducting polymers. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.