Evaluation of ellipsometric porosimetry for in-line characterization of ultra low-$\kappa$ dielectrics

C. Licitra (1) , F. Bertin (1) , Maxime Darnon (2, 1) , T. Chevolleau (2, 1) , C. Guedj (1) , S. Cetre (1) , H. Fontaine (1) , A. Zenasni (1) , L.L. Chapelon (3)

1 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
2 LTM - Laboratoire des technologies de la microélectronique
3 ST-GRENOBLE - STMicroelectronics [Grenoble]

Ellipsometric porosimetry (EP) has recently appeared to be a suitable non-destructive technique for the characterization of porous ultra low-$κ$ (ULK) dielectrics. The analysis of ellipsometric spectra of a film during adsorption and desorption cycles of an adsorptive, allows the determination of its open pore fraction, pore size distribution, refractive index and thickness. Several issues are encountered when integrating low-κ materials as inter-metal dielectrics (IMD) in the CMOS architecture such as the deposition monitoring, the pore sealing efficiency and the process induced damages. In this study we focus on the capabilities of EP to characterize ULK materials and their integration processes.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

C. Licitra, F. Bertin, Maxime Darnon, T. Chevolleau, C. Guedj, et al.. Evaluation of ellipsometric porosimetry for in-line characterization of ultra low-$\kappa$ dielectrics. physica status solidi (c), 2008, 5 (5), pp.1278-1282. ⟨10.1002/pssc.200777776⟩. ⟨hal-00387517⟩