Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (San Jose, CA) and Silecs Inc. announced that the two companies have agreed to collaborate on the development and testing of Silecs' non-porous, low-k dielectric materials in certain devices manufactured by Cypress. The key objectives are to improve speed performance, lower power consumption, reduce manufacturing costs and improve overall device yield. The project is part of Cypress's efforts to develop a robust low-k process for use in device manufacturing.
Low-k dielectrics are used in the manufacturing of advanced integrated circuit (IC) devices and are essential to achieve high-speed performance and reduced power consumption. Low-k materials, particularly porous low-k films, have proven difficult to integrate into the IC manufacturing processes. This is mainly due to their insufficient thermo-mechanical robustness, absorption of wet chemicals during processing and mismatches in thermal expansion characteristics with interconnect metals. Through molecular engineering, Silecs has developed non-porous, low-k materials to specifically overcome these issues.
