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Leakage current induced by surfactant residues in self-assembly based ultralow-k dielectric materials

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

© 2017 Author(s). In this work, we studied low-field leakage currents in the self-assembly based spin-on low-k dielectrics (k = 2.2) as it may be affected by the degree of the organic template decomposition. The distinct role of the template residues could be examined due to the remarkably different rate of organosilica matrix cross-linking and template decomposition during the hard-bake process. We found that the incomplete decomposition of the sacrificial organic phase is responsible for increased low-field leakage current through the dielectric. The analysis of photocurrent spectra and the results of electron resonance spectroscopy suggest that the degradation of electrical performance can be attributed to the presence of defect states ∼5 eV below the insulator conduction band induced by the residues in the form of oxidized sp3-carbon chains. The lowest leakage current is attained in the template-free material obtained by introduction of additional broadband UV-assisted curing (λ > 200 nm).
Journal: Applied Physics Letters
ISSN: 0003-6951
Issue: 3
Volume: 111
Pages: 1 - 5
Publication year:2017
BOF-keylabel:yes
IOF-keylabel:yes
BOF-publication weight:1
CSS-citation score:1
Authors from:Government, Higher Education
Accessibility:Closed