Materials Letters 158 (2015) 343–346

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials Letters
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet

Evolution of residual stress in benzocyclobutene films with

temperature
Isha Yadav, Shankar Dutta n, Anupriya Katiyar, Milap Singh, Renu Sharma, K.K. Jain
Solid State Physics Laboratory, DRDO, Lucknow Road, Timarpur, Delhi, 110054 India

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Benzocyclobutene (BCB) is widely used for wafer level packaging of radio frequency micro-electro-me-
Received 18 March 2015 chanical system (RF MEMS) devices. Although BCB is spin-coated at room temperature, its prebaking,
Accepted 7 June 2015 post baking and subsequent processing may induce residual stresses. This work intends to investigate the
Available online 12 June 2015
stress–temperature behaviour of BCB films. In these experiments, the residual stress values are found to
Keywords: be tensile in nature. As coated BCB film is found to possess a minimal stress (3 MPa); while it maximizes
Polymers to 50 MPa at 250 °C and then a reduce to 25 MPa at 350 °C. These stress variations correlate well with
Benzocyclobutene thickness variations in film with temperature.
Thin films & 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Baking temperature
Residual stress

1. Introduction temperatures and subsequent processing may induce residual

stresses in the packaged MEMS structure. Residual stress due to
In recent years radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical sys- the BCB coating can affect the package cap and/or the packaged
tems (RF MEMS) technology has matured to a level where it can be chip; thus impose a reliability issue for successful operation of RF
successfully integrated into practical RF systems with proven long MEMS device.
term reliability. Therefore, it has become imperative to develop a Residual stress is one of the most common after-effects of the
cost-effective and reliable packaging solution for the RF MEMS thin film deposition process and so associated with MEMS struc-
components [1–5]. tures [12–14]. Residual stresses can be described in terms of length
The RF MEMS components are being packaged in three levels – over which the stresses equilibrate [15–17]. If the residual stresses
0, 1 and 2 levels [6–11]. In the very first level (0-level) the delicate equilibrate over atomic dimensions and balance within a grain or
RF MEMS devices are packaged at the wafer level before the die even over a number of grain dimensions, they are recognized as
separation. The 1-level package comprises of the chip capsule microscopic residual stresses. The micro-stresses can be char-
(metal, plastic or ceramic package) and/or the leads for inter- acterized using Raman spectroscopy [12] and x-ray diffraction
connecting the chip to the outside world. Mounting a 1-level (XRD) technique [14–17]. If the residual stresses equilibrate over
packaged device to a board is termed 2-level packaging. In general, dimensions of the scale of the structure, they are termed as long
0-level packaging is done either by using a polymer layer as an range (macroscopic) residual stresses. The macroscopic stress in
adhesive for silicon cap bonding, or by fabricating a polymer cap thin film plays a crucial role when used in packaging of MEMS
structure on a target device. structures. Such stresses are often assessed using wafer curvature
In recent years, photo-patternable polymer materials like SU- measurement technique. This technique is independent of nature/
(8) and benzocyclobutene (BCB) are extensively used for zero-level state of the material (amorphous or polycrystalline or multiphase)
packaging of RF MEMS devices [3,4,7–11]. Processing of these [15–17].
materials has a lot of advantages such as low-cost, easy manu- In past, numerous papers have been published on the electrical
facturability, light weight etc. and optical properties of BCB materials and films [2–
Although the materials like BCB and SU8 layers are being 5,7,8,10,11,18,19]. However, there is no published report on the
coated at room temperature, its pre-baking, post baking evolution of residual stress of the BCB films with temperature and
its impact on 0-level packaging. In this paper, stress temperature
n
Corrospending author. Fax: þ 91 1123921652. behaviour of the spin coated BCB films is studied. Average mac-
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Dutta). roscopic residual stress generated in the BCB film and its evolution

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2015.06.032
0167-577X/& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
344 I. Yadav et al. / Materials Letters 158 (2015) 343–346

Fig. 1. BCB thickness vs baking temperature.

with the baking temperature (30–400 °C) has been estimated the films at temperatures ranging from 30 °C to 400 °C using the
using the wafer curvature measurement technique. stylus profiler. Fig. 1 shows the average thickness of the BCB layers
after baking at the predefined temperatures. Thickness of the BCB
layers are found to be increasing with temperature upto 250 °C
2. Experiment and then decreasing relatively sharply upto 350 °C. The thickness
of the BCB layers does not show any major thickness change in the
Spin-coating is a simple and fast technique that is being used to 350–400 °C temperature range.
coat polymers on different substrates. In this study, two set of Higher curing temperatures resulted in higher rate of random
experiments are planned. One in which the double side polished Si
crosslinking process. Moreover, short polymer chains are further
(100) wafers (50 mm diameter) are spin coated (using Karl Suss
cross-linked to form longer chain due to the sufficient baking
make spin-coater) with the BCB (4022TM, Dow Chemicals) layer at
duration (30 min). Thus, thickness of the BCB layers is increased
3000 rpm for 30 s for wafer curvature measurements. The spin
with the baking temperature. At 250 °C, the cross-linking of
coated samples are baked in oven at different temperatures (30–
400 °C) for 30 min. In second set, the BCB layer is coated and polymer chains (polymerization) of BCB completed and then glass-
subsequently patterned and baked to evaluate the film thickness. transition occurs [18,19]. After the glass-transition temperature
In each set of experiments, compatible adhesion promoter (AP (Tg ¼250 °C), the BCB layers become more and more plastic in
3000TM, Dow Chemicals) layer is coated. The film thickness is then nature and flows like a highly viscous fluid. Thus thickness of the
measured by using multi-mode stylus surface profiler (Veeco polymer layers start decreasing with increase in temperature. At
DekTak 150) at the step sites of the samples. 350 °C, the BCB layer melted (Tm ¼ 350 °C) and minimal change in
The macroscopic/average in-plane residual stress in the thin thickness is observed. These thicknesses (tf) of the BCB layers are
films is estimated by wafer-curvature measurements using TOHO then being used to calculate the residual stress by using Eq. (1).
FLX-2320 S laser reflectance system. To average out the macro- To estimate the macroscopic residual stress due to the BCB
scopic residual stress value, the wafer curvature measurements are coating, bowing and radius of curvature of the silicon wafers are
taken in the directions parallel and perpendicular to the wafer's measured before and after the deposition. Fig. 2 is showing the
primary flat. An accurate fit for the radius of curvature of the measured curvatures of the silicon wafers before and after the BCB
substrate was done using a line scan consisting of 50 points. Re- coating at different baking temperatures.
sidual stress in the BCB layers is estimated by using the famous Average macroscopic residual stress of the BCB layers is esti-
Stoney's equation as written below [15,17]: mated by using the radii of curvatures (before and after the BCB
⎛ Es ⎞ ts2 ⎡1 1⎤ coating) and Stoney's equation. Fig. 3 is showing the average re-
σ=⎜ ⎟ ⎢ − ⎥
⎝ 1 − ϑs ⎠ 6tf ⎣R R0 ⎦ (1) sidual stress with thickness of the BCB layer. The measured re-
sidual stresses are found to be tensile in nature. Stress measure-
Where, R0 and R are the radii of curvatures of the silicon substrate ments of these films revealed that as coated BCB film has minimal
before and after the BCB coating respectively. Thickness of the film stress (3 MPa) which increases upto 50 MPa with increase in
and substrate are denoted by tf and ts respectively. The calculation baking temperature upto 250 °C. Thereafter, the residual stress
of residual stress in the film only requires knowledge of substrate values start decreasing in the 250–350 °C range. After 350 °C, the
Young's modulus (Es) and Poisson's ratio (ϑs) and does not rely on
stress value is fairly constant (  25 MPa) upto 400 °C.
the material properties of the film. For Silicon (100) wafer,
From previously published data, coefficient of thermal expan-
Es ¼130 GPa and ϑs ¼0.28 [15,17].
sion (CTE) of BCB is found to be 6.2  10–5/ °C [18] which is quite
3. Results and discussion high compared to the CTE of silicon (2.6  10-6/ °C) [1]. Corre-
sponding residual stress due to thermal mismatch can be written
Average thickness of the BCB layers are measured after baking as
 I. Yadav et al. / Materials Letters 158 (2015) 343–346 345

Fig. 2. Cuvature of the silicon wafer before and after BCB coating (a) perpendicular to primary flat (b) parallel to primary flat.

⎛ EBCB ⎞ stress is mainly due to the thermal mismatch. After 250 °C, the
σmismatch = ⎜ ⎟ (αBCB − αSi )ΔT long polymer chains become more and more mobile and the BCB
⎝ 1 − ϑ BCB ⎠ (2)
layer become more and more plastic in nature and thus negative
The elastic constant and Poisson's ratio of the BCB layer are slope of the residual stress with increase in temperature is ob-
2.9 GPa and 0.34 respectively. Using Eq. (2), the residual stress due served. At 350 °C, the BCB layer melts and become soft and
to the thermal mismatch is estimated and plotted in Fig. 3 (in red minimal change in residual stress due to thermal strain is ob-
colour). It is quite clear that upto 250 °C the evolution of residual served in 350–400 °C range. Thus the BCB assisted wafer bonding
346 I. Yadav et al. / Materials Letters 158 (2015) 343–346

tensile in nature. These stress variations are well-related with the

thickness variations in film.

Acknowledgement

Authors would like to thank Director SSPL for his kind per-
mission to publish this paper. Help from other colleagues are also
acknowledged.

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