TEMPLATING NANOPOROSITY IN THIN-FILM DIELECTRIC INSULATORS

Porous thin-film dielectric insulators with significantly lower dielec tric constants are expected to have great impact on the fabrication of ever smaller semiconductor devices and chips with higher packaging de nsities. Here two routes to the preparation of such nanoporous thin fi lms are presented. A method has been developed that generates polyimid e foams with nanopores from a block copolymer in which the dispersed p hase undergoes thermolysis. The other approach described uses branched , highly functional macromolecules as molecular templates during vitri fication of a siles-quioxane.