Materials and methods for stress reduction in semiconductor wafer passivation layers

A device, comprising a semiconductor wafer and a passivating layer disposed on the surface of the wafer, wherein the passivating layer is comprised of a polyimide polymer comprising a structure selected from the group consisting of structures I, II and III:

• wherein:
• each of R, R3 and Q is independently selected from the group consisting of substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic, alkenyl, aromatic, heteroaromatic and siloxane moieties;
• R2 in each of structures I, II and III is independently selected from the group consisting of H or methyl;
• R4 is selected from the group consisting of substituted or unsubstituted linear, branched, cyclic aliphatic or alkenyl moieties having between 2 and about 500 carbon atoms, and substituted or unsubstituted aromatic moieties;
• n is an integer having the value between 1 to about 10;
• and
• the symbol “” depicts a macromolecular chain to which the structure II or III is covalently attached,
• with the further proviso that in the polyimide polymer, the molecular weight fraction of the combined contents of nitrogen and oxygen is less than about 20%.