A Manufacturing grade, porous oxycarbosilane spin-on dielectric candidate with K 2.0

Ultra low-k porous (k 2.4) materials are currently used for microelectronic applications. Future device generations require even lower dielectric constants, i.e. higher porosity. For highly porous systems, processing damage and mechanical properties are of great concern. Regarding the latter, sol-gel derived, spin-on oxycarbosilane homopolymers exhibit significantly higher stiffness and fracture resistance as compared to traditional organosilicates. Unfortunately, traditional sol-gel formulations show poor long-term solution stability. This presents a serious limitation to their use in manufacturing. In this paper, we describe the development of a stable, manufacturing grade spin-on formulation (k 2.0) that meets all the other integration requirements. © 2011 The Electrochemical Society.