Integration of photo-patternable low-κ material into advanced Cu back-end-of-the-line

We report herein the demonstration of a simple, low-cost Cu back-end-of-the-line (BEOL) dual-damascene integration using a novel photopatternable low-κ dielectric material concept that dramatically reduces Cu BEOL integration complexity. This κ = 2.7 photo-patternable low-κ material is based on the SiCOH-based material platform and has sub-200nm resolution capability with 248nm optical lithography. Cu/photopatternable low-κ dual-damascene integration at 45nm node BEOL fatwire levels has been demonstrated with very high electrical yields using the current manufacturing infrastructure. The photo-patternable low-κ concept is, therefore, a promising technology for highly efficient semiconductor Cu BEOL manufacturing. © 2010 The Japan Society of Applied Physics.