Chip industry looks for solutions to slow start for low-k materials

摘要

At this point in the development of production-worthy low-k dielectric materials, it's difficult to determine which is more prevalent: the breakthrough announcements or the public misgivings. Around the same time that Novellus Systems hints at a major advancement, the chief technical officer of the process equipment manufacturer complains during a Semi-con West conference that IC designers won't see the advantages touted by the materials' champions. Wilbert van den Hoek says that integrating low-k materials has proved more daunting and less beneficial at the lower dielectric constants than expected. The hard work "isn't buying us anything," he warns. In fact, low-k film has been an abject failure at the 130-nm node, van den Hoek insists.