Over the past few years, a number of groundbreaking discoveries have been made that could easily change the ways in which we look at producing electronics. Advancements have been registered on all fronts, including in nanotechnology (smaller wires), polymers (organic electronics), and, last but not least, materials. Things such as ferroelectric and piezoelectric devices are currently being studied almost around the clock, and flexible silicon and the newly-found graphene hold tremendous promise in a vast array of applications.

All that remains at this point is figuring out a way of combining all these incredible advancements into marketable electronics. In theory, the innovations could hit the market in a relatively short time span, but there are still numerous issues that prevent this from happening. The most arduous work is currently undertaken in the field of substrate manufacturing. Significant breakthroughs here could, in a short time, lead to reductions in the size, cost, and power consumption levels of modern electronic devices, that need to become more eco-friendly anyway, AlphaGalileo reports.

In a new book, entitled “Fabrication and characterization of ferro- and piezoelectric multilayer devices for high frequency applications”, author Tommi Riekkinen proposes a new paradigm of constructing instruments for radio and microwave frequency applications. The work focuses on creating new methods for the production of low-cost ceramic thin films, which would provide the basis for all future innovation in this area. In the publication, all the aspects related to the physical properties of the films and the device structures are discussed in minute detail.

Most of the book deals with applying the new principles to the development of things such as tunable ferroelectric capacitors and AIN bulk acoustic wave resonators. The expert essentially advocates the direct creation of parallel-plate ceramic devices, in a single-step process, that would put together a large number of innovations. The end product would be devices that would feature built-in electrodes, and that are also at a very small scale. The ISBN number for the publication is 978-951-38-7356-1, according to the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).