Influence of Network Bond Percolation on the Thermal, Mechanical, Electrical and Optical Properties of high and low-k a-SiC:H Thin Films

Published

August 25, 2013

Author(s)

Gheorghe Stan, Sean King, Jeff Bielefeld, Gaunghai Xu, William Lanford, Yusuke Matsuda, Reinhold Dauskardt, Jonathan F. Stebbins, Donald Hondongwa, Lauren Olasov, Brian Daly, Ming Liu, Dhanadeep Dutta, David W. Gidley

Abstract

As demand for lower power and higher performance nano-electronic products increases, the semiconductor industry must adopt insulating materials with progressively lower dielectric constants (i.e. low-k) in order to minimize capacitive related power losses in integrated circuits. However in addition to a lower dielectric constant, low-k materials typically exhibit many other reduced material properties that have limited the ability of the semiconductor industry to implement them. In this article, we demonstrate that the reduced material properties exhibited by low-k materials can be understood based on bond constraint and percolation theory. Using a-SiC:H as a case study material, we utilize nuclear reaction analysis, Rutherford backscattering, nuclear magnetic resonance and transmission Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy measurements to determine the average coordination () for these materials. Correlations of to Young’s modulus, hardness, thermal conductivity, resistivity, refractive index, intrinsic stress, mass density and porosity show that an extremely wide range in materials properties (in some cases several orders of magnitude) can be achieved through reducing via the controlled incorporation of terminal Si-Hx and C-Hx groups. We also demonstrate that the critical point at

Citation

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

silicon carbide, bond percolation, constraint theory, low-k, high-k, plasma, chemical vapor deposition, Young’s modulus, hardness, thermal conductivity, resistivity, dielectric constant, porosity, amorphous, diamond like carbon

Citation

Stan, G. , King, S. , Bielefeld, J. , Xu, G. , Lanford, W. , Matsuda, Y. , Dauskardt, R. , Stebbins, J. , Hondongwa, D. , Olasov, L. , Daly, B. , Liu, M. , Dutta, D. and Griffith, D. (2013), Influence of Network Bond Percolation on the Thermal, Mechanical, Electrical and Optical Properties of high and low-k a-SiC:H Thin Films, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=914260 (Accessed March 13, 2025)