This letter presents a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) material testing setup that relies on electronic measurements of nanospecimen elongation. Compared to previously demonstrated MEMS that rely on high magnification images to measure elongation, this MEMS is more versatile, allowing both in situ and ex situ testing of nanomaterials with high accuracy and precision. We describe and characterize the MEMS device and illustrate its mode of operation with a successful ex situ uniaxial tensile test of a nanocrystalline nickel nanobeam. The combination of ex situ and in situ nanomechanical tests will enable a thorough investigation of critical properties pertaining to the reliability of nanosystems.

Previously, the fabrication of air-gap structures for electrical interconnections was demonstrated using a sacrificial polymer encapsulated in conventional dielectric materials. The air-gaps were formed by thermally decomposing the sacrificial polymer and allowing the by-products to diffuse through the encapsulating dielectric. The diffusivity of the polymer decomposition products is adequate at elevated temperatures to allow the formation of air-gaps. This process was extended to form low dielectric constant, porous silica from commercially available methylsilsesquioxane (MSQ) by the addition of the sacrificial polymer to the MSQ. The porous MSQ film was thermally cured followed by decomposition of the NB at temperatures above 400°C. The dielectric constant of the MSQ was lowered from 2.7 to 2.3 by creating 70 nm pores in the MSQ. The voids created in the MSQ appeared to exhibit a closed-pore structure.

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A fabrication process for compliant, copper chip-tosubstrate interconnections is described in this paper. Copper interconnect structures were produced through a copper electroplating step filling cavities inside photo-patterned hollow polymer molds. These polymer structures were fabricated on both the chip and the substrate. Copper pillar interconnects are useful as chip-to-substrate power distribution I/O and have been successfully fabricated and assembled. Finite element modeling by ANSYS was used to simulate the mechanics of the copper pillars connection from chip-to-board at elevated temperature conditions. The shear stress distribution was used to analyze the weak points along the pillar. The maximum allowed shear stress was then use to determine the required pillar dimensions (e.g. height and aspect ratio).

This work reviews the dependence of reliability testing results on material processing and properties for polymeric materials used in high density interconnection technologies.Specific data are presented for CyclotenesTM 3022 resins containing divinylsiloxane bisbenzocyclobutene, (CAS 117732-87-3). Silane coupling agents discussed in this study are 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (CAS 01760-24-3)(APTES) and 3-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (CAS 02530-85-0) (MOP-TMS).