Process Integration Of Low-Dielectric-Constant Materials

As device geometries and operating voltage continue to scale while functional density increases, it is imperative to reduce the RC time delay. The replacement of Si0 2 as an intermetal dielectric with an insulator of lower dielectric constant is a particularly attractive solution since it provides immediate performance improvement through reduction in capacitance. An embedded polymer integration scheme improves the interconnect performance through line-to-line capacitance reduction by using polymer only between tightly spaced lines. The gapfill polymeric materials do not degrade the electromigration performance of standard multilayered TiN/Al/TiN interconnects. Embedded polymers alleviate many of the integration and reliability problems associated with polymer integration, and can be easily adopted into a standard production process.