Directly-patternable benzocyclobutene dielectric materials

Silicon Valley, America’s bastion of innovation is named for the tiny pieces finely patterned silicon transistors that are the “brains” of all modern computational devices. However, without the ability to protect these valuable chips and translate their electrical signals to other hardware, silicon transistors are useless to the world. The demand for these microelectronic packages to perform better, cost less and be made in high yield is perhaps the next great challenge in the microelectronics industry. This dissertation covers several approaches to next generation packaging materials. In chapter two, the design, synthesis and characterization of long wavelength photobase generators for patterning polyimides is discussed. The rest of the dissertation focuses understanding and applying benzocyclobutene (BCB) thermosets to a packaging application. BCB materials have been combined with polyhedralsilsesquioxane (POSS), ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) norbornenes, and addition polymer norbornenes to produce several original resins with interesting and attractive properties. New chemistry has been employed to understand the relationship of the BCB electrocyclic ring opening and Diels Alder crosslink.