Axcelis Technologies, Inc.

Other

Dow Corning Corporation

Ralph Albano

Ivan L Berry, Iii

Carlo Waldfried

Qingyuan Han

Orlando Escorcia

Atsushi Shiota

Phil Dembowski

Nick Sbrockey

Ian Ball

Jeff Jang

Cory Bargeron

Jeff Bremmer

Low dielectric constant porous materials with improved elastic modulus and material hardness. The process of making such porous materials involves providing a porous dielectric material and plasma curing the porous dielectric material with a fluorine-free plasma gas to produce a fluorine-free plasma cured porous dielectric material. Fluorine-free plasma curing of the porous dielectric material yields a material with improved modulus and material hardness, and with comparable dielectric constant. The improvement in elastic modulus is typically greater than or about 50%, and more typically greater than or about 100%. The improvement in material hardness is typically greater than or about 50%. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims 37 CFR &#xa7;1.72(b).

Fluorine-free plasma curing process for porous low-k materials

Low dielectric constant porous materials with improved elastic modulus and hardness. The process of making such porous materials involves providing a porous dielectric material and plasma curing the porous dielectric material to produce a plasma cured porous dielectric material. Plasma curing of the porous dielectric material yields a material with improved modulus and hardness. The improvement in elastic modulus is typically greater than or about 50%, more typically greater than or about 100%, and more typically greater than or about 200%. The improvement in hardness is typically greater than or about 50%. The plasma cured porous dielectric material can optionally be post-plasma treated. The post-plasma treatment of the plasma cured porous dielectric material reduces the dielectric constant of the material while maintaining an improved elastic modulus and hardness as compared to the plasma cured porous dielectric material. The post-plasma treated, plasma cured porous dielectric material has a dielectric constant between about 1.1 and about 3.5 and an improved elastic modulus and hardness.

Plasma curing process for porous low-k materials

Low dielectric constant film materials with improved elastic modulus. The method of making such film materials involves providing a porous methyl silsesquioxane based dielectric film material produced from a resin molecule containing at least 2 Si&mdash;CH groups and plasma curing the porous film material to convert the film into porous silica. Plasma curing of the porous film material yields a film with improved modulus and outgassing properties. The improvement in elastic modulus is typically greater than or about 100%, and more typically greater than or about 200%. The plasma cured porous film material can optionally be annealed. The annealing of the plasma cured film may reduce the dielectric constant of the film while maintaining an improved elastic modulus as compared to the plasma cured porous film material. The annealed, plasma cured film has a dielectric constant between about 1.1 and about 2.4 and an improved elastic modulus.

Plasma curing of MSQ-based porous low-k film materials

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Columbia, MD, United States of America

Ralph Albano