Sol-gel Growth of Novel Nanoporous This Film Material for Electronic Packaging

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop novel low-dielectric constant thin film materials for electronic packaging applications using a sol-gel technique. The major driving force for the development of new dielectric materials is the need for low dielectric constants to limit the RC delay in electronic interconnects as ICs scale below 0.5 um in an attempt to achieve higher wiring density. Based on our success in the growth of oxide films we propose to use our revolutionary sol-gel technique - chemical liquid deposition CLD. This is a low temperature, flexible, and low cost process with excellent capabilities for producing crack-free films. Other advantages of this process are excellent gap-filling and porosity control. Our focus will be on the novel low-K material based on nanoporous silica. This material has a low dielectric constant, low moisture up-take, high break-down voltage, good adhesion to various substrates, and excellent chemical and thermal stability. Its properties can be finely tuned to satisfy the requirements of the various electronic applications. High thermal and chemical stability are especially important for BMDO applications where electronics must survive and function in hostile environments. Success in Phase I effort will identify new material and a new process to fabricate superior dielectric thin films for high speed, high density IC packaging. This work will have direct application for the IC manufacturing community and result in high performance electronics for defense and civilian users.