AlliedSignal touts spin-on dielectric

11/01/1997

AlliedSignal touts spin-on dielectric

As part of its plans to extend its presence beyond the spin-on glass market into dielectrics, AlliedSignal Electronic Materials, Los Gatos, CA, has unveiled an inorganic spin-on polymer that the company says will provide a lower-cost alternative to CVD/CMP processes

below 0.35-?m.

The material, called Accuspin T-22, has a dielectric constant (k) of about 3.0, and will be priced at levels similar to SOG materials, said product development manager Nicole Rutherford. Performance is equivalent to competing spin-on polymer materials, she added. "It`s very oxide-like, and it eliminates the need for etchback. It`s definitely a gap-fill material," she said.

A typical application would involve a "sandwich" structure of a metal layer, a thin CVD oxide layer, the T-22 material, and another oxide layer. Gapfill down to 0.05-?m can be accomplished, and CMP is eliminated.

Samples of the T-22 material have been sent to about 40 chipmaker sites, said Rutherford, and work is currently under way on a typical process sequence. "We expect it to be very similar to SOG, but you don`t have to etch back," she explained. "Via clean is always one of the most important parts, but we don`t see a lot of really novel development."

- P.N.D.