Claims
- 1. A method of making a plasma cured material having improved properties comprising:
providing a porous methyl silsesquioxane-based dielectric film material, having a first dielectric constant and having a first elastic modulus, wherein the porous film material is produced from a resin containing at least 2 Si—CH3 groups; and plasma curing the porous film material to reduce the amount of Si—CH3 bonds and to produce an SiOx-containing plasma cured porous film material having a second dielectric constant which is comparable to the first dielectric constant and having a second elastic modulus which is greater than the first elastic modulus, and wherein x is a number between 1 and 2.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the porous film material is plasma cured at a plasma power in the range of about 500 W to about 3000 W.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the porous film material is plasma cured at a temperature less than about 350° C.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the porous film material is plasma cured at a temperature in the range of about 150° C. to about 350° C.
- 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the porous film material is plasma cured at a temperature in the range of about 270° C. to about 300° C.
- 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the porous film material is plasma cured at process pressure in the range of about 1 to about 4 Torr.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the porous film material is plasma cured for a time in the range of about 15 to about 120 seconds.
- 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the porous film material is plasma cured with a plasma gas.
- 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the plasma gas is selected from a H2 plasma gas, a N2 plasma gas, a CF4 plasma gas, or an O2 plasma gas, or a combination thereof.
- 10. The process of claim 1 wherein the increase in elastic modulus between the first elastic modulus of the porous film material and the second elastic modulus of the plasma cured porous film material is greater than about 100%.
- 11. The process of claim 1 wherein the increase in elastic modulus between the first elastic modulus of the porous film material and the second elastic modulus of the plasma cured porous film material is greater than about 200%.
- 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the second elastic modulus of the plasma cured porous film material is greater than about 3 GPa.
- 13. The method of claim 1 wherein the second elastic modulus of the plasma cured porous film material is between about 3 GPa and about 10 GPa.
- 14. The method of claim 1 wherein a level of outgassing of the plasma cured porous film material is significantly reduced or eliminated.
- 15. The method of claim 1 further comprising annealing the plasma cured porous film material to provide an annealed, plasma cured porous film material having a third dielectric constant which is comparable to, or less than the second dielectric constant and having a third elastic modulus which is comparable to the second elastic modulus.
- 16. The method of claim 15 wherein the plasma cured porous film material is annealed at a temperature less than about 450° C.
- 17. The method of claim 15 wherein the plasma cured porous film material is annealed at a temperature in the range of about 350° C. to about 450° C.
- 18. The method of claim 15 wherein the plasma cured porous film material is annealed for no more than about 60 minutes.
- 19. The method of claim 15 wherein the third dielectric constant of the annealed, plasma cured porous film material is in the range of from about 1.1 to about 3.5.
- 20. The method of claim 15 wherein the third dielectric constant of the annealed, plasma cured porous film material is in the range of from about 1.8 to about 2.4.
- 21. A plasma cured porous film material prepared by the method of claim 1.
- 22. An annealed, plasma cured porous film material prepared by the method of claim 15.
- 23. An electronic device containing a plasma cured porous film material prepared by the method of claim 1.
- 24. An electronic device containing an annealed, plasma cured porous film material prepared by the method of claim 15.
- 25. A substrate having a plasma cured porous film material prepared by the method of claim 1.
- 26. A substrate having an annealed, plasma cured porous film material prepared by the method of claim 15.
- 27. A porous SiOx-containing plasma cured film material having a dielectric constant of about 1.1 to about 3.5 and an elastic modulus that is between about 100 and about 200% greater than a non-plasma cured porous SiOx-containing film material.
- 28. A porous SiOx-containing plasma cured film material having a dielectric constant of about 1.8 to about 2.4 and an elastic modulus that is between about 100 and about 200% greater than a non-plasma cured porous SiOx-containing film material.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/681,332, filed Mar. 19, 2001 and entitled “PLASMA CURING PROCESS FOR POROUS SILICA THIN FILM” which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/528,835, filed Mar. 20, 2000 and entitled “HIGH MODULUS, LOW DIELECTRIC CONSTANT COATINGS”, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Continuation in Parts (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09681332 |
Mar 2001 |
US |
Child |
09906276 |
Jul 2001 |
US |
Parent |
09528835 |
Mar 2000 |
US |
Child |
09681332 |
Mar 2001 |
US |