Structural Characteristics of Methylsilsesquioxane Based Porous Low-k Thin Films Fabricated with Increasing Cross-Linked Particle Porogen Loading

Published

September 1, 2006

Author(s)

Hae-Jeong Lee, Christopher L. Soles, Da-Wei Liu, Barry J. Bauer, Eric K. Lin, Wen-Li Wu

Abstract

Methylsilsesquioxane (MSQ) based porous low-k dielectric films with different porogen loading have been characterized using X-ray porosimetry (XRP) to determine their pore size distribution, average density, wall density and porosity. By varying the porogen content from (1 to 30) % by mass, the porosity changed from (12 to 34) % by volume, indicating that the MSQ matrix material contains approximately 10 % by volume inherent microporosity. These results further suggest that the porogen is not 100% effective in generating pores and some of the porogen materials remain in the films especially for the sample with higher porogen contents. The wall density was found to be independent of the porogen content and on the order of (1.33 to 1.34) g/cm3.The average pore size from XRP of these samples increased from 10 to 15 in radius with increased porogen loadings. The average pore size was also obtained from small angle neutron scattering measurements and found to be consistent with from the XRP data for the sample with higher porogen loading.

Citation

Journal of Applied Physics

Volume

100

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

film density, porosity, porous low-k dielectric material, small-angle neutron scattering, wall density, x-ray reflectivity

Citation

Lee, H. , Soles, C. , Liu, D. , Bauer, B. , Lin, E. and Wu, W. (2006), Structural Characteristics of Methylsilsesquioxane Based Porous Low-k Thin Films Fabricated with Increasing Cross-Linked Particle Porogen Loading, Journal of Applied Physics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=852378 (Accessed October 17, 2025)