Curing processes in ultra low-k materials by positron annihilation spectroscopy

The first results on in-situ investigations of pore formation in ultra low-k dielectrics during a curing process, i.e., a porogen removal by vacuum annealing will be presented. The main focus is to obtain insight into initial stages of pore networks formation up to their full development. The in-situ annealing and Doppler broadening positron annihilation spectroscopy measurements have been conducted on our Apparatus for In-situ Defect Analysis (AIDA) - the end-station of a slow positrons beamline at HZDR. In addition, positron lifetime spectroscopy has been utilized, where mono-energetic pulsed positron beam (MePS) serves as a probe to evaluate pore sizes, their concentration and distribution as a function of curing temperature and time. The MePS facility has partly been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with the grant PosiAnalyse (05K2013). The AIDA system was funded by the Impulse- und Networking fund of the Helmholtz-Association (FKZ VH-VI-442 Memriox) and through the Helmholtz Energy Materials Characterization Platform (03ET7015)