We succeeded in fabricating ultra-thin (<3 nm-thick) layer on top of the surface of porous low-k. The roughness of the surface of porous low-k remains homogeneous even after covering by the thin layer. Furthermore, we found that such ultra-thin layer suppresses the diffusion of metal into porous low-k film. Concerning adhesion property, the abrasion between the thin layer and copper was not detected after annealing at 350 deg C in forming gas. TVS measurement suggested that pH control of solution is the key to reduce damages of porous low-k and mobile ions. We believe that such ultra-thin layer, which we propose here, has a potential as a pore seal layer for porous low-k films.

In this paper, we establish the following results: (i) every strongly finite dilator is finitely presentable in the category of endofunctors on the category of ordinals; (ii) a dilator F is strongly finite if and only if F is finitely presentable in the category of dilators.