Molecular simulation strategy for mechanical modeling of amorphous/porous low-dielectric constant materials

We propose an amorphous/porous molecular connection network generation algorithm for simulating the material stiffness of a low-k material (SiOC:H). Based on a given concentration of the basic building blocks, this algorithm will generate an approximate and large amorphous network. The molecular topology is obtained by distributing these blocks randomly into a predefined framework. Subsequently, a structural relaxation step including local and global perturbations is applied to achieve the most likely stereochemical structure. Thus, the obtained mechanical properties of the low-k materials have been verified with the experimental data. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.