Evaluation of ellipsometric porosimetry for in‐line characterization of ultra low‐κ dielectrics

Abstract

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. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Impact of low-k structure and porosity on etch processes

“…46 Similar results are obtained using toluene as a solvent (not shown here). 47,48 The pore size distribution of the porous material was deduced from the variations of its refractive index or its adsorbed solvent volume fraction versus the pore radius. It consists of a rotating polarizer spectroscopic ellipsometer coupled with a vacuum chamber, which is operated at a pressure ranging from 10 À3 Torr to the saturation vapor pressure (Ps $ 105 Torr for methanol) of the adsorptive.…”

ZIF-8 thin films by a vapor-phase process: limits to growth

“…Ellipsometric spectra were recorded simultaneously between 1.55 and 4.13 eV with a CCD detector and the angle of incidence was set at 60.15°. 28 and building a 2 × 2 × 2 supercell (with a lattice constant of 33.7633 Å). Defective models of ZIF-8 (n missing linkers) were derived from the former through the protocol described in the ESI.…”

Study of Porous SiOCH Patterning Using Metallic Hard Mask: Challenges and Solutions

“…Ellipsometry porosimetric measurements are performed in the visible range on an EP12 ellipsometric porosimeter from SOPRALAB [21]. It consists of a rotating polarizer spectroscopic ellipsometer coupled with a vacuum chamber which is operated in a pressure range between 10 -3 Torr and the saturation vapor pressure (Ps) of the adsorptive.…”