You're right, PECVD is notorious for pinholes. I've used PECVD SiN as an intermetal dielectric, but it was 1000nm. So you might try going thicker. I also used SiON, and I believe that was successful as closer to 500nm. If you must use PECVD SiN, you might try higher temperature and lower dep rate to improve atom mobility at the surface. This might introduce film stress issues though, so you might need to address that... Dan -----Original Message----- From: mems-talk-bounces+dan.ruiz=honeywell.com@memsnet.org [mailto:mems-talk- bounces+dan.ruiz=honeywell.com@memsnet.org] On Behalf Of nahid vahabi Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 3:49 PM To: mems-talk@memsnet.org Subject: [mems-talk] Silicon Nitride shorting metal layers Hello all, I deposit a 250 nm PECVD SiN layer as the dielectric between two gold layers and the metal layers seem to be short through the nitride each time. I increased the nitride thickness to 400 nm and still the same. I gathered that PECVD nitride is quite notorious for the pinholes so I multi-layered the nitride (6 times of 40 nm each) to get rid of pinholes. It worked only on 1 wafer and then the same problem again. So I appreciate any comments on this and whether you think changing the dielectric is a good option. Thank you, Nahid _______________________________________________ Hosted by the MEMS and Nanotechnology Exchange, the country's leading provider of MEMS and Nanotechnology design and fabrication services. Visit us at http://www.mems-exchange.org Want to advertise to this community? See http://www.memsnet.org To unsubscribe: http://mail.mems-exchange.org/mailman/listinfo/mems-talk _______________________________________________ Hosted by the MEMS and Nanotechnology Exchange, the country's leading provider of MEMS and Nanotechnology design and fabrication services. Visit us at http://www.mems-exchange.org Want to advertise to this community? See http://www.memsnet.org To unsubscribe: http://mail.mems-exchange.org/mailman/listinfo/mems-talk