Patent ID: 7948083

Claim:
An interconnect structure comprising: an UV cured porous ultra low k dielectric layer located on a substrate, said UV cured porous ultra low k dielectric layer comprising a bulk portion and a gradient surface layer located within an upper portion of said bulk portion, wherein said bulk portion is non-oxide like and said gradient surface layer is oxide-like; at least one conductive feature embedded within said UV cured porous ultra low k dielectric layer and having a top surface that is coplanar with a top surface of said gradient surface layer; and a capping layer located directly on an upper exposed surface of said at least one conductive feature and an upper surface of said gradient surface layer, wherein said UV cured porous ultra low k dielectric layer comprises atoms of Si, C, O and H that are covalently bonded in a tri-dimensional network located on a substrate, said UV cured porous ultra low k dielectric layer having a dielectric constant of less than 3.0, nano-sized pores of a diameter between about 0.3 to about 50 nanometers, and wherein said gradient surface layer has a density gradient and a C content gradient that differ from the bulk portion, and said interconnect structure not including a separate hard mask layer on an upper surface of the gradient surface layer.