Measurement of the Electrical Properties of High Performance Dielectric Materials for Multichip Modules

Multichip modules provide short chip‐to‐chip interconnects in order to take advantage of the high speeds available in integrated circuits. One multichip approach utilises layers of embedded microstrip. In order to achieve the highest possible speed, it is necessary to use metals and dielectrics which have low relative dielectric constants and low loss. Polymer and polyimide dielectric materials hold great promise in MCM applications; however, their high frequency characteristics are often not well known. Since thin film dielectric properties may differ from the bulk properties, it is important to be able to determine the dielectric properties using on‐wafer measurement techniques rather than more conventional techniques. This paper focuses on some of the techniques available and discusses the advantages and shortcomings of different techniques for measuring dielectric properties.