• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제15권10호
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• pp.838-843
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• 2002

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process has been widely used to planarize dielectric layers, which can be applied to the integrated circuits for deep sub-micron technology. The reverse moat etch process has been used for the shallow trench isolation(STI)-chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process with conventional low selectivity slurries. Thus, the process became more complex, and the defects were seriously increased. In this paper, we studied the direct STI-CMP process without reverse moat etch step using high selectivity slurry(HSS). As our experimental results show, it was possible to achieve a global planarization without the complicated reverse moat process, the STI-CMP process could be dramatically simplified, and the defect level was reduced. Therefore the throughput, yield, and stability in the ULSI semiconductor device fabrication could be greatly improved.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제32권7호
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• pp.627-631
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• 2015

Conventional etching technology is in the face of problems such as dishing, erosion resulting from non-uniform removal of film. Advanced printed circuit board (PCB) requires accurate wire formation with the aid of planarization by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). Linear roll CMP is a line contact continuous process which removes the film by pressurization and rotation while slurry is supplied to polishing pad attached to the roll. This paper focuses on the design of floating nozzle on the linear roll CMP equipment which makes the slurry supply uniformly on the roll pad. Experimental results show that removal rate using the floating nozzle increases 3 times higher than that without it and non-uniformity is less than 15%.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제11권12호
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• pp.1084-1090
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• 1998

As device sizes are scaled down to submicron dimensions, planarization technology becomes increasingly important for both device fabrication and formation of multilevel interconnects. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has emerged recently as a new processing technique for achieving a high degree of planarization for submicron VLSI applications. The polishing process has many variables, and most of which are not well understood. The factors determine the planarization performance are slurry and pad type, insert material, conditioning technique, and choice of polishing tool. Circuit density, pattern size, and wiring layout also affect the performance of a CMP planarization process. This paper presents the results of studies on CMP process window characterization for 0.35 micron process with 5 metal layers.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2005년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.434-437
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• 2005

Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) has become an essential step in the overall semiconductor wafer fabrication technology. In general, CMP is a surface planarization method in which a silicon wafer is rotated against a polishing pad in the presence of slurry under pressure. The polishing pad, generally a polyurethane-based material, consists of polymeric foam cell walls, which aid in removal of the reaction products at the wafer interface. It has been found that the material removal rate of any polishing pad decreases due to the so-called 'pad glazing' after several wafer lots have been processed. Therefore, the pad restoration and conditioning has become essential in CMP processes to keep the urethane polishing pad at the proper friction coefficient and to allow effective slurry transport to the wafer surface. Diamond pad conditioner employs a single layer of brazed bonded diamond crystals. Due to the corrosive nature of the polishing slurry required in low pH metal CMP such as copper, it is essential to minimize the possibility of chemical interaction between very low pH slurry (pH <2) and the bond alloy. In this paper, we report an exceptional protective coated conditioner for in-situ pad conditioning in low pH Cu CMP process. The protective Cr-coated conditioner has been tested in slurry with pH levels as low as 1.5 without bond degradation.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.157-162
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• 2006

Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), one of the dominant technology for ULSI planarization, is used to flatten the micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) structures. The objective of this paper is to achieve good planarization of the deposited film and to improve deposition efficiency of subsequent layer structures by using surface-micromachining process in MEMS technology. Planarization characteristic of poly-Si film deposited on thin oxide layer with MEMS structures is evaluated with different slurries. Patterns used for this research have shapes of square, density, line, hole, pillar, and micro engine part. Advantages of CMP process for MEMS structures are observed respectively by using the test patterns with structures larger than 1 urn line width. Preliminary tests for material selectivity of poly-Si and oxide are conducted with two types of silica slurries: $ILD1300^{TM}\;and\;Nalco2371^{TM}$. And then, the experiments were conducted based on the pretest. A selectivity and pH adjustment of slurry affected largely step heights of MEMS structures. These results would be anticipated as an important bridge stone to manufacture MEMS CMP slurry.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.1-4
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• 2007

This paper discusses two approaches for pre-polishing optimization of oxide chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) that can be used as alternatives to the commonly applied dummy structure insertion in shallow trench isolation (STI) and replacement gate (RG) technologies: reverse nitride masking (RNM) and oxide etchback (OEB). Wafers have been produced using each optimization technique and CMP tests have been performed. Dishing, erosion and global planarity have been investigated with the help of conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM). The results demonstrate the effectiveness of both techniques which yield excellent planarity without dummy structure related performance degradation due to capacitive coupling.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2003년도 제5회 학술대회 논문집 일렉트렛트 및 응용기술연구회
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• pp.109-112
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• 2003

Recently, CMP (Chemical mechanical polishing) technology has been widely used for global planarization of multi-level interconnection for ULSI applications. However, COO (cost of ownership) and COC (cost of consumables) were relatively increased because of expensive slurry. In this paper, we have studied the possibility of recycle of reused silica slurry in order to reduce the costs of CMP slurry. Also, we have collected the silica abrasive powders by filtering after subsequent CMP process for the purpose of abrasive particle recycling. And then, we annealed the collected abrasive powders to promote the mechanical strength of reduced abrasion force. Finally, we compared the CMP characteristics between self-developed KOH-based silica abrasive slurry and original slurry. As our experimental results, we obtained the comparable removal rate and good planarity with commercial products. Consequently, we can expect the saving of high cost slurry.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.1-5
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• 2001

STI(shallow trench isolation)-CMP(chemical mechanical polishing) process have been substituted for LOCOS(local oxidation of silicon) process to obtain global planarization in the below sub-0.5㎛ technology. However TI-CMP process, especially TI-CMP with RIE(reactive ion etching) etch back process, has some kinds of defect like nitride residue, torn oxide defect, etc. In this paper, we studied how to reduced torn oxide defects after STI-CMP with RIE etch back processed. Although torn oxide defects which can occur on trench area is not deep and not severe, torn oxide defects on moat area is not deep and not severe, torn oxide defects on moat area is sometimes very deep and makes the yield loss. Thus, we did test on pattern wafers which go through trench process, APECVD process, and RIE etch back process by using an IPEC 472 polisher, IC1000/SUVA4 PAD and KOH base slurry to reduce the number of torn defects and to study what is the origin of torn oxide defects.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.203-207
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• 2008

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) allows the planarization of wafers with two or more materials. There are many elements such as slurry, polishing pad, process parameters and conditioning in CMP process. Especially, polishing pad is considered as one of the most important consumables because this affects its performances such as WIWNU(within wafer non-uniformity) and MRR(material removal rate). In polishing pad, grooves and pores on its surface affect distribution of slurry, flow and profile of MRR on wafer. A subject of this investigation is to apply CMP for planarization of shallow trench isolation structure using microstructure(MS) pad. MS pad is designed to have uniform structure on its surface and manufactured by micro-molding technology. And then STI CMP performances such as pattern selectivity, erosion and comer rounding are evaluated.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2003년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.4 No.1
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• pp.335-338
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• 2003

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process has been widely used to planarize dielectric layers, which can be applied to the integrated circuits for sub-micron technology. Despite the increased use of CMP process, it is difficult to accomplish the global planarization of in the defect-free inter-layer dielectrics (ILD). Especially, defects such as micro-scratch lead to severe circuit failure which affect yield. CMP slurries can contain particles exceeding $1\;{\mu}m$ in size, which could cause micro-scratch on the wafer surface. In this paper, we have studied aging effect the of CMP sin as a function of particle size. We prepared and compared the self-developed silica slurry by adding of abrasives before and after annealing. As our preliminary experiment results, we could be obtained the relatively stable slurry characteristics comparable to original silica slurry in the slurry aging effect.