PROCESS INTEGRATION OF AN INTERLEVEL DIELECTRIC (ILDO) MODULE USING ABUILDING-IN RELIABILITY APPROACH

Process integration is approached from a built-in reliability perspect ive in order to develop a pre-metal1 interlevel dielectric (ILDO) modu le which may be integrated into a submicron CMOS process with embedded nonvolatile memory, The approach involves developing a fundamental un derstanding of the process parameters that modulate parasitics and imp act reliability. The benefit of such an approach is a relatively simpl e process integration while achieving a highly manufacturable and reli able process, Several ILDO films have been characterized to understand the physical and chemical composition, process parameter dependencies , and gettering properties in order to define a process window from wh ich to integrate the most manufacturable process.