Post Porosity Plasma Protection applied to a wide range of ultra low-k materials

Integration challenges of porous ultra low-k (ULK) materials resulting from the ULKs´ high sensitivity to process damage constitute a major roadblock to their implementation in back-end-of-the-line wiring structures for advanced technology nodes. The Post Porosity Plasma Protection strategy, which we introduced last year, enables to shield the ULKs´ porosity during key integration steps. We report here on the feasibility of the protection across a wider range of dielectric constants and the advantages offered by our strategy during integration in terms of critical dimension integrity and electrical properties.