Patent ID: 8440388

Claim:
A semiconductor device produced by a process comprising: (a) forming a hydrophobic silica dielectric film on a substrate that is patterned with features and suitable for the manufacture of a semiconductor device, (b) contacting said silica dielectric film and said features with an etchant to thereby etch trenches, vias or both trenches and vias, into said dielectric film and in such a way as to remove previously existing hydrophobicity of said dielectric film or to substantially damage and remove previously existing hydrophobicity of said dielectric film; (c) treating said etched silica dielectric film by contacting the etched silica dielectric film with a surface modification composition at a concentration and for a time period effective to render the silica dielectric film hydrophobic; and removing unreacted surface modification composition, reaction products and mixtures thereof from the etched silica dielectric film, wherein the surface modification composition comprises at least one surface modification agent suitable for removing silanol moieties from the etched silica dielectric film; wherein steps (a) and (b) are conducted in any order, and step (c) is conducted after step (b), and wherein step (c) is repeated after each step (b).