Effect of Thickness on Electrical and Reliability Characteristics for Dense and Porous Low Dielectric Constant Materials

Thickness-dependent dielectric electrical and reliability characteristics in the dense and porous low-k films were investigated in this study. The experimental results obtained from metal-insulator-silicon (MIS) structures indicate that the dielectric strength and the dielectric breakdown time of low-k dielectric films were inversely proportional to the dielectric physical thickness. A inverse power law combined with an critical thickness for dielectric breakdown characteristics was proposed and well-fitted the experimental results. Additionally, the dense low-k films exhibited a higher critical thickness and a higher power law constant value, indicating that their breakdown behaviors are more related to the film thickness as compared to the porous low-k films.