Study of Pore Architecture in Silicon Oxide Thin Films by Variable-energy Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy

ABSTRACTApplication of porous silicon oxide thin films to nanotechnology is under intensive investigation. Introducing a large amount of nano pores into a silicon oxide matrix is important to develop low-k dielectrics for future ultra-large-scale integrated circuits (ULSI). In this work, we applied variable-energy positron annihilation to the characterization of porous silicon oxide thin films fabricated on silicon wafers by sputtering and spincoating. It was found that the sputtered film has higher open pore connectivity than that of the spincoated low-k film.