Ultralow-resistance electrochemical capacitor for integrable line filtering.

Abstract

Electrochemical capacitors are expected to replace conventional electrolytic capacitors in line filtering for integrated circuits and portable electronics^1-8. However, practical implementation of electrochemical capacitors into line-filtering circuits has not yet been achieved owing to the difficulty in synergistic accomplishment of fast responses, high specific capacitance, miniaturization and circuit-compatible integration^1,4,5,9-12. Here we propose an electric-field enhancement strategy to promote frequency characteristics and capacitance simultaneously. By downscaling the channel width with femtosecond-laser scribing, a miniaturized narrow-channel in-plane electrochemical capacitor shows drastically reduced ionic resistances within both the electrode material and the electrolyte, leading to an ultralow series resistance of 39 mΩ cm² at 120 Hz. As a consequence, an ultrahigh areal capacitance of up to 5.2 mF cm^-2 is achieved with a phase angle of -80° at 120 Hz, twice as large as one of the highest reported previously^4,13,14, and little degradation is observed over 1,000,000 cycles. Scalable integration of this electrochemical capacitor into microcircuitry shows a high integration density of 80 cells cm^-2 and on-demand customization of capacitance and voltage. In light of excellent filtering performances and circuit compatibility, this work presents an important step of line-filtering electrochemical capacitors towards practical applications in integrated circuits and flexible electronics.