Evaluation of air gap structures produced by wet etch of sacrificial dielectrics: Extraction of keff for different technology nodes and film permittivity

Group III nitride and SiC based MEMS and NEMS: materials properties, technology and applications

“…Consequently, additional materials have to be involved in the MEMS technology including new functional layers such as piezoelectric films. SiC is one representative of the wide band gap semiconductors, which have already found implementation in the Si micromachining technology: mainly in polycrystalline form to act as etch stop [5,7] or protective layer [5,8]. For further implementation of functional wide band gap semiconductors for fabricating MEMS there are basically two possible strategies: (i) the development of a new technology for pure wide band gap semiconductor based MEMS (mainly for SiC) and the employment of new functionality for integrated and miniaturized MEMS and NEMS (mainly group III nitrides).…”

Cross-Linked Organic Sacrificial Material for Air Gap Formation by Initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition

“…Although a dielectric constant of 1.5-1.8 has been achieved for porous materials, 2 reduced mechanical properties, [3][4][5][6] interconnected pores that call for further remedies ͑such as pore sealing by plasma treatment͒, which in turn results in carbon bleaching and an undesired increase in dielectric constant, moisture adsorption, and barrier discontinuity 7 remain serious issues for integration. Air has the lowest possible dielectric constant of 1.0, and construction of intermetal air gaps as dielectric material in critical parts of integrated circuits has been proposed, simulated, 8,9 implemented, 9,10 and shown to be the solution beyond the technological node of 45 nm linewidth. 8 One method of air-gap formation relies on the incorporation of sacrificial materials, 9,11 which involves the deposition and patterning of such materials in the early stage, followed by thermal degradation of the sacrificial material as the last step.…”

“…Air has the lowest possible dielectric constant of 1.0, and construction of intermetal air gaps as dielectric material in critical parts of integrated circuits has been proposed, simulated, 8,9 implemented, 9,10 and shown to be the solution beyond the technological node of 45 nm linewidth. 8 One method of air-gap formation relies on the incorporation of sacrificial materials, 9,11 which involves the deposition and patterning of such materials in the early stage, followed by thermal degradation of the sacrificial material as the last step. Sacrificial materials serve as template or "void precursor," and it is required that the decomposition products effectively diffuse out of the multilayer assembly during thermal treatment.…”