Study on the interfacial adhesion property of low-k thin film by the surface acoustic waves with cohesive zone model

Abstract

The cohesive zone model being increasingly used in discrete fracture processes simulation is adopted to study the interfacial adhesion property of low dielectric constant film deposited on the silicon substrate in this work. The two parameters, maximum normal traction and normal interface characteristic length in cohesive zone model, are taken into account to calculate the theoretical surface acoustic wave dispersion curves. Broadband surface acoustic wave signals with effective frequency up to 200MHz are generated by short pulse ultraviolet laser source and detected by a piezoelectric transducer. The interfacial adhesion properties of dense and porous films determined accurately by matching the experimental dispersion curves with the calculated theoretical dispersion curves are 10.7PPa/m and 2.8PPa/m, respectively. The results show that the adhesion quality of dense low dielectric constant film is better than that of the porous. The study exhibits that the adhesion properties determined by improved laser-generated surface acoustic wave technique have the same trends with the test results of the nanoscratch technique, which indicates that the surface acoustic wave technique with cohesive zone model is a promising and nondestructive method for determining interfacial adhesion properties between low dielectric constant film and substrate.