Air gap for interconnect application
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsHai-Ching Chen, Sunil Kumar Singh, Tien-I Bao, Shau-Lin Shue, Chen-Hua Yu
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Abstract
The present disclosure provides a method for fabricating an integrated circuit. The method includes forming an energy removable film (ERF) on a substrate; forming a first dielectric layer on the ERF; patterning the ERF and first dielectric layer to form a trench in the ERF and the first dielectric layer; filling a conductive material in the trench; forming a ceiling layer on the first dielectric layer and conductive material filled in the trench; and applying energy to the ERF to form air gaps in the ERF after the forming of the ceiling layer.
Claims19
A method for fabricating an integrated circuit, comprising:
- forming an energy removable film (ERF) on a substrate;
- forming a first dielectric layer on the ERF, wherein the first dielectric layer comprises a low-k material having a dielectric constant less than that of silicon oxide;
- patterning the ERF and first dielectric layer to form a trench in the ERF and the first dielectric layer;
- filling a conductive material in the trench;
- forming a ceiling layer on the first dielectric layer and conductive material filled in the trench;
- and
- applying energy to form air gaps in the ERF after forming the ceiling layer.
A method comprising:
- forming an energy removable film (ERF) on a substrate;
- forming a low-dielectric-constant (low-k) layer on the ERF;
- patterning the ERF and low-k layer to form a plurality of trenches in the ERF and the first dielectric layer;
- filling a conductive material in the plurality of trenches;
- applying a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to the conductive material;
- forming a ceiling layer of a porous structure on the low-k layer and conductive material filled in the plurality of trenches;
- and
- after the forming of the ceiling layer, applying energy to the ERF to form air gaps in the ERF.
An integrated circuit comprising;
- an energy removal film (ERF) disposed on a substrate;
- a dielectric layer disposed on the ERF;
- a plurality of conductive features filled in the ERF and the dielectric layer;
- and
- a ceiling layer disposed on the dielectric layer and the plurality of conductive features, wherein the ERF layer includes air gaps inhomogeneously distributed such that a portion of the ERF having a narrower spacing between two of the plurality of conductive features has a higher air gap density than that of a portion of the ERF having a larger spacing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.