Dielectric materials and insulators for microelectronics

The more advanced an integrated circuit becomes, the more stringent are the demands for certain properties of a dielectric or insulating material. In addition, it is essential that the layer maintains its specific electrical, physical, and chemical properties after incorporation in the device structure and during subsequent processing. Due to temperature budget constraints and the accelerated decrease of feature sizes below 0.25 mu m one can no longer rely on traditional choices but has to search for alternatives, both for low and high permittivity replacements. In this article we survey currently used dielectric materials and future trends for microelectronic applications.