Electrical leakage at low-K polyimide/TEOS interface

Author

Loke, Alvin L S ; Wetzel, Jeffrey T. ; Stankus, John J. ; Angyal, Matthew S. ; Mowry, Brian K. ; Wong, S. Simon

Author_Institution

Center for Integrated Syst., Stanford Univ., CA, USA

Volume

19

Issue

6

fYear

1998

fDate

6/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

177

Lastpage

179

Abstract

The effect of low-K polymer passivation on electrical leakage was investigated to evaluate the reliability of polymer integration on device wafers. Polyimide passivation over Al(0.5% Cu) interconnects inlaid in TEOS increases the intralevel leakage current mainly along the polyimide/TEOS interface. Moisture absorbed in the polyimide further increases the inter facial as well as bulk leakages. These findings emphasize the importance of separating interconnects from direct contact with polyimide/TEOS interfaces to alleviate electrical isolation problems in multilevel interconnect architecture that employs low-K polymer dielectrics.

Keywords

dielectric thin films; integrated circuit interconnections; integrated circuit reliability; isolation technology; leakage currents; moisture; passivation; permittivity; polymer films; AlCu; bulk leakage; device wafers; electrical isolation problems; electrical leakage; interfacial leakage; intralevel leakage current; low-K polyimide/TEOS interface; moisture; multilevel interconnect architecture; polyimide; polymer passivation; reliability; Current measurement; Dielectric substrates; Etching; Laboratories; Leakage current; Moisture; Passivation; Polyimides; Polymers; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.678535

Filename

678535