Effect of Humidity Treatments on Porosity and Mechanical Integrity of Mesoporous Silica Films
Porous ceramic and porous hybrid ceramic films are potentially useful as low dielectric constant interlayers in semiconductor interconnects (1-6). The hybrid ceramic films are generally defined as films that contain both organic and ceramic molecular components in the structure, as for example, organosilicate films. At present, the industry is in the process of inserting CVD and spin-coated films in the k= 2.6-3.0 range. Exploratory films with k= 2.2-2.5 are being evaluated within interconnects (7) for the next generation of devices. The silicate/organosilicate dielectric films with k 2.2 generally exhibit an elastic modulus 4.0 GPa. For future technology nodes (< 70 nm) in integrated circuits, that will require extremely low dielectric constants (.0) in high purity films (< 50 parts per billion metal impurities), one of the key challenges is designing low dielectric constants while maintaining high elastic modulus. This paper describes the usefulness of humidity treatments i n increasing mechanical integrity of porous films with minimal detrimental effect on film porosity or dielectric constant, and no change in film quality. The efficacy of such treatments is illustrated using surfactant-templated mesoporous silicate films as a model example. This method should be broadly applicable to any cross-linked ceramic or hybrid ceramic films, including silicate and organosilicate films, and especially highly porous forms of the films for low-dielectric constant applications
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab., Richland, WA (US), Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 15004370
- Report Number(s):
- PNWD-SA-5824; 2127; TRN: US201015%%553
- Journal Information:
- Chemical Communications, Vol. 16; Other Information: PBD: 15 May 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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