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

Abstract

Low dielectric constant porous materials with improved elastic modulus and film 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 hardness, but with a higher dielectric constant. The improvement in elastic modulus is typically greater than or about 100%, and more typically greater than or about 200%. The improvement in film hardness is typically greater than or about 50%. The fluorine-free plasma cured porous dielectric material can optionally be post-plasma treated. The post-plasma treatment of the fluorine-free plasma cured porous dielectric material reduces the dielectric constant of the material while maintaining an improved elastic modulus and film hardness as compared to the fluorine-free plasma cured porous dielectric material. 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 §1.72(b).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.