Water uptake of a low-κ dielectric film: Combining capacitance and gravimetric measurements

Moisture uptake of a benzocyclobutene (BCB) film has been investigated by using the capacitance-time (C-t) measurement method. The change in the permittivity at 80% relative humidity (RH) at room temperature in saturation is about 1.54%. To derive the absolute amount of water molecules from the change in capacitance an appropriate electrical model is required. For the direct measurement of the amount of water molecules in the BCB film gravimetric measurements have been performed at the same environmental conditions by using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). In saturation the change in mass induced by the moisture uptake is only about 0.14%. However, the application of the Debye equation using the dipole moment of water vapor yielded an excellent agreement between electrical and physical measurements.

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