Modeling to Predict Effective Dielectric Constant of Porous Silicon Low-Dielectric-constant Thin Films

ABSTRACT To predict the effective dielectric constant of porous silicon oxidized and unoxidized low-dielectric-constant thin films, an analytical solution is developed. The proposed method that covers contribution from the components of silicon oxide and voids using a serial-parallel capacitance structure is based on the Vachon and Cran model. The statistically fractal porous dielectric is approximated by a typical n-stage model. The comparison between different cases of porous silicon oxidized and unoxidized allowed low-dielectric-constant prediction and the best model selection. Oxidation proved to be a good solution for stabilization of the material. The results show reasonable agreement with existing experimental data.