SILICON-CONTAINING POLY(AMIDE-ETHER)S

New aromatic poly(amide-ether)s (II) have been synthesized by solution polycondensation of various aromatic diamines having two ether bridge s (I) with a diacid chloride containing silicon, namely bis(chlorocarb onylphenyl)-diphenylsilane. These polymers ave easy soluble in polar a midic solvents such as N-methylpyrrolidinone or dimethylformamide and can be cast into thin flexible films or coatings from such solutions. They show high thermal stability with initial decomposition temperatur e being above 400 degrees C. Their glass transition temperatures lie i n the range of 220-250 degrees C, except for polymer IIe which did not show a clear T-g when heated in a differential scanning calorimetry e xperiment up to 300 degrees C. The large interval between the glass tr ansition and decomposition temperatures of polymers Ia-Id could be adv antageous for their processing via compression molding. The polymer co atings deposited by the spin-coating technique onto silicon wafers sho wed a very smooth, pinhole-free surface in atomic force microscopy inv estigafiolzs. The free-standing films Of 20-30 mu m thickness show low dielectric constant, in the range of 3.65-3.78, which is promising fo r future application as high performance dielectrics. (C) 1998 John Wi ley & Sons, Ltd.