A Study on Characterization and Modeling of Shallow Trench Isolation in Oxide Chemical Mechanical Polishing

The end point of oxide chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) have determined by polishing time calculated from removal rate and target thickness of oxide. This study is about control of oxide removal amounts on the shallow trench isolation (STI) patterned wafers using removal rate and thickness of blanket (non-patterned) wafers. At first, it was investigated the removal properties of PETEOS blanket wafers, and then it was compared with the removal properties and the planarization (step height) as a function of polishing time of the specific STI patterned wafers. We found that there is a relationship between the oxide removal amounts of blanket and patterned wafers. We analyzed this relationship, and the post CMP thickness of patterned wafers could be controlled by removal rate and removal target thickness of blanket wafers. As the result of correlation analysis, we confirmed that there was the strong correlation between patterned and blanket wafer (correlation factor: 0.7109). So, we could confirm the repeatability as applying for STI CMP process from the obtained linear formula. As the result of repeatability test, the differences of calculated polishing time and actual polishing time was about 3.48 seconds. If this time is converted into the thickness, then it is from 104 $\AA$ to 167 $\AA$. It is possible to be ignored because process margin is about 1800 $\AA$.