Dow Corning and Air Products join forces to supply trimethylsilane to the global semiconductor industry

Citation

(2000), "Dow Corning and Air Products join forces to supply trimethylsilane to the global semiconductor industry", Microelectronics International, Vol. 17 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/mi.2000.21817bab.012

Dow Corning and Air Products join forces to supply trimethylsilane to the global semiconductor industry

Keywords Dow Corning, Air Products and Chemicals, Semiconductors

Dow Corning Corporation and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. have announced the formation of a strategic alliance to globally market and supply Dow Corning's semiconductor grade trimethylsilane to semiconductor customers around the world.

Trimethylsilane is a breakthrough silicon precursor used in the formation of interlayer dielectric (ILD) and diffusion barrier films for advanced semiconductor devices.

Under the alliance, Air Products becomes the worldwide distributor of Dow Corning's trimethylsilane. Air Products will sell the product directly to semiconductor customers, as well as to other electronic specialty gas suppliers.

As semiconductor feature sizes decrease, there is a growing need for ILD films with low dieletric constants, or "k" values. Trimethylsilane is a silicon-source gas engineered to fill this need (k = 2.7) via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Various applications include next generation low-k (SiCOH) and barrier (SiC:H) films, as well as traditional silicon oxide or silicon nitride films. The films grown with trimethylsilane have been shown to achieve significant performance benefits over silane-based nitride and oxide films used for metal isolation, circuit passivation, and ILD.

Air Products' Electronics Division, through its Solkatronic Chemicals business unit, will package trimethylsilane into high-purity cylinders and will sell to customers and distributors through their global electronics distribution network. Dow Corning, with large scale manufacturing facilities in Carrolton, KY and extensive applications development capabilities in Midland, MI, will continue to support the industry's demands for both product supply and applications know-how.