Prevention of premature breakdown of interline porous dielectrics in an integrated circuit

A process, comprising:

• forming two electrically conductive elements of an interconnect portion of an integrated circuit that are separated from each other by a porous portion of a dielectric region;
• and
• inserting at least one non-porous dielectric barrier between the porous portion of said dielectric region and at least one of the two electrically conductive elements to protect the integrated circuit from electrical conduction assisted by the presence of defects located in the dielectric region separating the two electrically conductive elements;
• wherein inserting comprises providing the at least one non-porous dielectric barrier along a side wall of the porous portion of the dielectric region but not extending along a bottom surface of said at least one of the two electrically conductive elements.