A method for improving the adhesion of PE-CVD SiO/sub 2/ to Cyclotene/sup TM/ 5021 polymeric interlayer dielectric

Successful integration of a polymer as an interlayer dielectric requires mechanical reliability to be maintained through all back-end of line (BEOL) processes. In this paper we use an integration demonstration of PE-CVD SiO/sub 2/ with Cyclotene/sup TM/ 5021 (BCB). Blistering after high temperature thermal annealing was mitigated by improvement of the adhesion strength of the deposited oxide film. This was successful when the BCB layer was treated with N/sub 2/ plasma. Fracture mechanics combined with surface analysis is used to understand the mechanism of improved mechanical reliability.