Moisture Removal

Complete dehydration of porous low-K material poses a major challenge to process engineers. The problem with porous low-K material is the series of deep cave-like holes that harbor moisture in an insulating material. Even when it is possible to heat the material enough to evaporate moisture on the cave walls, the steam is still present and needs to be drawn out of the cave.

Low-k Dielectric Sealing

Unfortunately, in a standard clean room, enough moisture exists to react with the pore walls and slowly produce a moisture layer that will reduce the K factor. However, if the pores are sealed against the ingress of moisture, integrity of the dielectric can be retained.

YES equipment uses a series of vacuum pulls and hot Nitrogen purges so the sidewalls of the pores are completely dehydrated. This way, when the atmosphere of the chamber is hot Nitrogen at 1 Torr, the atmosphere in all pores is at 1 Torr.

In order to successfully remove all moisture from porous low-K material, transform it into hydrophobic material, and seal it so it won't absorb moisture again, YES recommends using either of two ovens:

• A manual vacuum oven with temperature control up to 200°C
• An automatic vacuum oven with temperature control up to 450°C

Here's an outline of the process:

1. First, pull a vacuum to 10 Torr. This allows water to boil at 11°C and actively pulls the moisture out of the cave.
2. Next, fill chamber with hot nitrogen at the oven temperature to 600 Torr. This fills and heats all walls of the caves at the same time. Repeat as needed. While flat silicon surfaces typically need three nitrogen purge cycles to achieve complete dehydration, porous insulation material may require as many as six purges.
3. Then, pull a vacuum to 1 Torr, dehydrate further, and prepare for wall treatment and sealing.
4. Finally, using the correct volume and temperature, a wet silane (typically HMDS) is vaporized and the resulting vapor pressure of 6 to 50 Torr replaces the 1 Torr of nitrogen in the caves with active chemical to produce entirely hydrophobic surfaces. At the same time, it seals the pores so moisture can never penetrate again.

NOTE: It is possible to do a copper anneal at the same time you treat the low-K dielectric and reduce process steps.

Dielectric Repair

Vapor deposition can restore low-k dielectrics that are plasma (ash) damaged.

Vacuum systems such as the YES-Vertacure and YES-450PB Series are designed to meet your low-k dielectric needs. When you're ready to run a demo, just let us know. You can contact us

• July 9-11, 2019 - Visit YES at booth #932 at Semicon West in San Francisco
• June 25-27, 2019 - Visit YES at booth #244 at Sensors Expo and Conference in San Jose
• May 28-31, 2019 - Visit YES at booth #219 at ECTC in Las Vegas
• April 29-May 2, 2019 - Visit YES at booth #306 at CS Mantech in Minneapolis
• March 4-7, 2019 - Visit YES at Booth #64 at the IMAPS Device Packaging Conference in Arizona
• December 20, 2018 - YES Announces Initial Shipments of YES- ÉcoClean Photoresist Strip/Descum System Read more »
• October 23-24, 2018 - Visit YES at Booth #7 at the International Wafer Level Packaging Conference at the San Jose Doubletree Hotel.
• October 1-3, 2018 - Visit YES at Booth # 8 at Lab On a Chip at the Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa (San Diego, CA).
• August 31, 2018 - YES Signs Scientech Corporation as New Sales Rep for China, Taiwan and SE Asia Read more »
• July 10-12, 2018 - Visit YES at SEMICON West in South Hall Booth #810 in San Francisco, CA
• May 29-31, 2018 - Visit YES at Booth #202 at ECTC in San Diego, CA.
• May 7-9, 2018 - Visit YES at Booth #100 at CSManTech in Austin, Texas.

Other Updates

• See our list of upcoming tradeshows!