There is an ongoing need to develop new technologies to enable further down‐scaling of layer thicknesses in multilayer ceramic devices, for example, in multilayer capacitors (MLC). Microcontact printing of chemical solutions of both the dielectric and electrode layers was explored as an economical means of preparing patterned thin films for MLC without requiring photolithography. For this purpose, methanol/acetic acid‐based BaTiO3 solutions were spun onto polydimethylsiloxane stamps, printed onto substrates, pyrolyzed, and crystallized. LaNiO3 was used as a prototype electrode that could also be microcontact printed. The line edge roughness produced this way was on the order of a tenth of a micrometer, which should enable very small margins. The printed layer thickness was also very uniform. Microcontact printed capacitors with a single dielectric layer were fabricated and found to have dielectric constants >800 with loss tangents <2%. Alignment between subsequent layers is readily achieved. Multilayer dielectric/electrode stacks could be fabricated without cracking or delaminations. Consequently, microcontact printing appears to be a viable potential means of preparing MLC with layer thicknesses in the range of ≤0.2 μm.

Nickel manganite thin films are good candidates for thermal imaging applications because of their large temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), (>−3%/K) and good environmental stability. To enable low‐temperature deposition (90°C) on preexisting circuitry, a spin spray technique was developed for these materials. As‐deposited manganese oxide films show well‐developed X‐ray diffraction patterns, while as‐deposited nickel manganite films exhibit a nanocrystalline spinel structure. Low‐temperature (400°C) postdeposition annealing leads to densification of the nanocrystalline nickel manganite spinel films. Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements on annealed films provide complex dielectric function spectra over a range from 0.75 to 5.15 eV with comparable features with those found in films prepared by a chemical solution method. Energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy indicates that the final composition of the films is Ni deficient relative to the starting solution composition. The TCR of the nickel manganite films annealed at 400°C in an argon atmosphere is −3.6%/K. Doping the nickel manganite films with zinc results in an improvement of crystallinity, but leads to substantial increases in the electrical resistivity. Copper doping reduces the resistivity of the films to <1.0 kΩ·cm without degrading the crystalline quality, thus resulting in films suitable for microbolometer applications.

The dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties of chemical solution deposited xBiInO3–(1−x)PbTiO3 (0.10≤x≤0.35) thin films on platinized silicon substrates were investigated. Using a PbTiO3 seed layer, phase pure xBiInO3–(1−x)PbTiO3 (0.10≤x≤0.35) thin films were prepared. For a 470 nm thick 0.15BiInO3–0.85PbTiO3 film, the room temperature permittivity was 650, while the dielectric loss tangent was below 2%. The coercive field and remanent polarization were 73 kV/cm and 22 μC/cm2, respectively. The ferroelectric transition temperatures of the xBiInO3–(1−x)PbTiO3 (x=0.10–0.20) films were all in excess of 550 °C. For x=0.15, the e31,f piezoelectric coefficient was −2.7 C/m2.