Electrical transport phenomena in aromatic hydrocarbon polymer

Electrical transport mechanisms in a low-permittivity aromatic hydrocarbon SiLK have been characterized using metal/SiLK/Si capacitors under both thermal and electric field stressing. Two distinct transport mechanisms dominate the leakage behavior of the polymer SiLK with Al and Cu electrodes, respectively. Al-electrode capacitors show Schottky-emission (SE)-type leakage behavior while Poole-Frenkel (PF) conduction resulted from trap generation in the SiLK polymer is responsible for the leakage of Cu-electrode capacitors. The trap barrier height has been extracted from the temperature dependence of leakage current. Copper penetration into the SiLK polymer leads to the generation of trap centers and seriously deteriorates dielectric characteristics. The transition of leakage conduction from SE to PF will exponentially lead to the insulating failure of the SiLK polymer. (C) 2003 The Electrochemical Society.