Impact of substituting SiO2 ILD by low k materials into AlCu RIE metallization

Abstract The impact of introducing a low k dielectric for gap fill into standard process flow of AlCu RIE metallization with SiO 2 ILD is described. The low k material is a carbon-doped silicon oxide deposited by CVD. Standard oxide treatment is used for further processing of the material, i.e. CMP, contact etch, resist strip and contact clean. The CMP polish rate and the via hole profiles are investigated. The capacitive coupling is reduced by 15% compared to a standard HDP oxide gap fill.