New Interconnect Metals Need New Dielectrics

By Katherine Derbyshire - 23 Jul, 2024 - Comments: 0

Just as circuit metallization must evolve to manage resistance as features shrink, so must the dielectric half of the interconnect stack. For quite some time, manufacturers have needed a dielectric constant (k) less than 4, which is the value for SiO2, but they have struggled to find materials that combine a low dielectric constant with mechanical and chemical stability. In work presented at... » read more

High-Temperature-Stable, Spin-On Carbon Materials For High-Aspect-Ratio Gap-Fill Applications

By Brewer Science - 16 Jun, 2021 - Comments: 0

Brewer Science, Inc. has developed a class of novel, high-temperature-stable spin-on carbon (SOC)-based materials with excellent processability. These SOCs are cured under mild conditions and have flow properties that enable the fill of high-aspect-ratio vias in a void-free manner. Moreover, this new class of SOCs has remarkable thermal stability and can survive temperatures of up to 550°C wit... » read more

More Lithography/Mask Challenges (Part 2)

By Mark LaPedus - 17 Apr, 2018 - Comments: 3

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss lithography and photomask technologies with Gregory McIntyre, director of the Advanced Patterning Department at [getentity id="22217" e_name="Imec"]; Harry Levinson, senior fellow and senior director of technology research at [getentity id="22819" comment="GlobalFoundries"]; Regina Freed, managing director of patterning technology at [getentity id="... » read more

The Problem With Spin-On Carbon Materials

By Runhui Huang - 09 Apr, 2018 - Comments: 0

In an integrated circuit manufacturing process, spin-on-carbon (SOC) materials constitute an important layer for the multilayer process to achieve smaller feature size. The SOC layer responds to the photolithography, pattern transformation, substrate planarization, and a variety of other critical processes. A key challenge in selecting a suitable material is that some processes require a hig... » read more

How To Deal With Electromigration

By Katherine Derbyshire - 02 Mar, 2015 - Comments: 8

The replacement of aluminum with copper interconnect wiring, first demonstrated by IBM in 1997, brought the integrated circuit industry substantial improvements in both resistance to electromigration and line conductivity. Copper is both a better and more stable conductor than aluminum. Difficult though the transition was, it helped extend device scaling for another eighteen years (and counting... » read more

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tag: gap fill

New Interconnect Metals Need New Dielectrics

High-Temperature-Stable, Spin-On Carbon Materials For High-Aspect-Ratio Gap-Fill Applications

More Lithography/Mask Challenges (Part 2)

The Problem With Spin-On Carbon Materials

How To Deal With Electromigration

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