Browsing by Author "Kao, Kai-Chieh"

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Effect of UV curing time on physical and electrical properties and reliability of low dielectric constant materials
(2014-11-01)
Kao, Kai-Chieh
;
Chang, Wei-Yuan
;
Chang, Yu-Min
;
Leu, Jihperng
;
Cheng, Yi-Lung
This study comprehensively investigates the effect of ultraviolet (UV) curing time on the physical, electrical, and reliability characteristics of porous low-k materials. Following UV irradiation for various periods, the depth profiles of the chemical composition in the low-k dielectrics were homogeneous. Initially, the UV curing process preferentially removed porogen-related CHx groups and then modified Si-CH3 and cage Si-O bonds to form network Si-O bonds. The lowest dielectric constant (k value) was thus obtained at a UV curing time of 300 s. Additionally, UV irradiation made porogen-based low-k materials hydrophobic and to an extent that increased with UV curing time. With a short curing time (<300 s), porogen was not completely removed and the residues degraded reliability performance. A long curing time (>300 s) was associated with improved mechanical strength, electrical performance, and reliability of the low-k materials, but none of these increased linearly with UV curing time. Therefore, UV curing is necessary, but the process time must be optimized for porous low-k materials on back-end of line integration in 45 nm or below technology nodes. (C) 2014 American Vacuum Society.