Organic polymers for IC intermetal dielectric applications

As interconnect dimensions in integrated circuits shrink well below 0.5 μm, traditional dielectric insulators have inadequate performance. Organic polymers, in general, exhibit lower dielectric constants than inorganic oxides and nitrides, and thus are candidates for the intermetal dielectric at these small dimensions. Most organic polymers do not possess adequate thermal stability for back end processing, however. A few candidates, such as fluorinated poly(arylenethers), may prove useful if they possess sufficient dimensional stability to withstand multilayer interconnect processing.