All-hydrocarbon benzocyclobutene resin with low Dk and high-resolution photo-imageable dielectric performance

Low dielectric photoinduced patterned materials have attracted extensive attention owing to their potential applications in integrated circuits and semiconductor devices. In this work, we synthesized a low dielectric polymer that can be used for photolithography. The monomer, 1-(4-vinylphenyl)-2-(4-benzocyclobutenyl)ethene (DVB-S-BCB), was synthesized from divinylbenzene (DVB) and 4-bromobenzocyclobutene (4-BrBCB) using the Heck reaction. Subsequently, P-DVB based on DVB-S-BCB was prepared by anionic polymerization. As the structure comprised thermally curable benzocyclobutene (BCB) groups and photocurable vinyl groups (UV/Thermal dual curing structure), P-DVB has been used for high-performance negative photosensitive resin with 2,6-bis(4-azidobenzylidene) cyclohexanone (BAC) as a photoinitiator. Photolithography was carried out using a 365-nm UV light source to obtain various patterns, and the research results indicate that photosensitive resins exhibit stable patterning processes at different curing stages. Besides, the cured P-DVB exhibited high thermal stability (T_5% above 420 °C in N₂), low dielectric constant (2.55 at 10 MHz), low dielectric loss (1.56 × 10⁻³ at 10 MHz), and excellent mechanical performance. These properties make P-DVB a potential photoresist that can be widely used as interconnected dielectrics.