In this work, we investigated the UV curing of a photo-patternable low-? material that is compatible with 248 nm deep ultraviolet (DUV) optical lithography.  This 248 nm photo-patternable low-? material is based on a silsesquioxane copolymer. The UV curing of the 248 nm photo-patternable low-k material led to improved dielectric constants and leakage currents,  enhanced mechanical properties as well as post-cure pattern integrity of the resultant photo-patternable low-? material.  This transformation from the photoresist into a robust permanent on-chip dielectric insulator is attributed to the removal of organic functional groups / components and crosslinking of the silsesquioxane polymer. We have also demonstrated integration of the 248 nm photo-patternable low-? material into 45 nm node computer chips using the current chip manufacturing infrastructure.  This proof-of-concept demonstration of the photo-patternable low-k materials is an important step toward a simple, low-cost computer chip manufacturing.

Transforming Si polymers into patternable permanent dielectric insulators for computer chips by ultraviolet curing

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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