[Sci-all-l] Physics/Astronomy Colloquium

[Luc Peterson]

Monday, November 21, 2005
Sanders Physics Auditorium, Room 207
Tea and cookies at 3:15
Talk begins at 3:30

Hard Times for Thin Films: A Study of the Elastic Moduli of  
Dielectric Films
Dr. G. Andrew Antonelli

Intel Corporation
Portland Technology Development
Hillsboro, Oregon, USA

The semiconductor industry has made several major transitions in the  
past
decade to continue to improve device density (the number of
transistors per microchip) and performance. The RC time delay induced by
wire interconnects between devices on a part has now begun to limit the
speed with which that part can operate. To address this issue, a new  
class
of low-dielectric constant (k) materials have been introduced to  
decrease
the capacitance of interconnects. But the integration of low-k  
dielectric
materials generates a whole host of new problems such as cracking which
are directly related to their unique mechanical properties. Unlike
electrical properties or thickness, the few analytical methods of
measuring these properties that exist are not well understood. In this
talk, we will discuss several techniques used to measure the elastic
moduli. We will show the issues involved with applying these methods to
low-k dielectric materials and present some results.