In the field of organic electronics, conductive polymeric and organic materials are utilized as the basis for integrated component fabrication rather than traditional metallic/inorganic materials. Organic electronic systems offer many potential advantages over conventional electronics including extremely low fabrication costs due to simple, yet robust fabrication methods, and the ability to form circuit elements onto flexible, cheap materials such as plastic or paper. Organic electronics also find application in many novel technological areas, including organic light emitting diodes, organic photovoltaics and organic touch screen displays. However, when compared with traditional silicon electronics, organic electronics have slow ‘switching times’ (e.g. operational speed) and fewer individual elements can be packed per unit area. Accordingly, focus has shifted to developing suitable dielectric insulating layers used to separate operational conductive elements.
Dielectric layers are critical to the function of microelectronic devices. An effective dielectric layer is generally characterized as having a low dielectric constant, k. The value of ‘k’ is a basic property of a material and is governed by its structural and electronic properties. For example, a low k material is an insulating material that exhibits weak polarization when subjected to an externally applied electric field. Lower k-values typically equate to better dielectric properties, reductions in component size, increases in packing density and higher switching speeds.
However, existing polymeric materials for use as dielectrics, e.g. fluoropolymers, polyamides, thin film silica, etc., often do not possess the mechanical, thermal and electronic properties necessary to enable the next generation of robust yet flexible organic electronic devices. For example, existing porous polymeric materials often are typically fragile mechanically due, for example, their low Young's modulus. Improvements are thus needed in regard to methods and compositions for nanoporous polymeric materials having low dielectric constants.