Appeal No. 2000-1585
Application No. 08/883,427
According to appellants (brief at pages 2 and 3), the
present invention relates to covering an interconnection wiring
level or insulating adjacent devices in a semiconductor
substrate. The use of thin film ceramic silica coatings as
protective and dielectric layers for electronic devices is known
in the art. Currently, Si02 (silicone dioxide) is used as the
back-end dielectric in semiconductor devices. However, as chip
function integration increases, back end wiring densities also
increase. Because of this, there exists a greater need for
intra-level insulators having lower dielectric constants than the
presently used Si02. This is crucial in order to reduce delays
due to cross-talk and stray capacitance. The Si02 used prior to
the present invention has a dielectric constant of 4, which may
limit its use because of the potential cross-talk and RC delays.
Moreover, because of reduced spacings between lines, the need for
the insulation to conformally fill small spaces is increasingly
important. Since device density is also increasing with
increasing complexity, the need to electrically insulate devices
from each other has become important as well. With smaller
inter-device dimensions, providing trenches conformally filled
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