Abstract
To meet the next generation device performance demands, high-speed integrated circuits are required. By just shrinking the device size, the desired device performance cannot be achieved. Thus, to improve the performance sufficiently, new substitute materials for current metal and interlayer dielectrics are required. One of the promising substitute materials for an interlayer dielectric is polyimide. The general characteristics of the starting material, fluorinated polyamic acid, were investigated. The effect of post metal annealing and a SiN[x] barrier layer between metal and polyimide on the properties of the polyimide film was studied. Plasma-modified, low k (dielectric constant), polyimide thin film has been studied for the future interlayer dielectric. The results show that the film's k value was lowered under various plasma hydrogenation conditions. Temperature is an important factor in the hydrogenation. Another dielectric property, the leakage current, was little influenced by hydrogenation. Physical and chemical properties of the modified film were investigated extensively. The hydrogenation method can be used to reduce the dielectric constant of the given material without sacrificing leakage current.
Chung, Taewoo (2002). A study of plasma modification of low k polyimide thin film. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2002 -THESIS -C4514.