• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.481-482
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• 2006

Chemical-mechanical polishing, the dominant technology for LSI planarization, is trending to play an important function in micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS). However, MEMS CMP process has a couple of different characteristics in comparison to LSI device CMP since the feature size of MEMS is bigger than that of LSI devices. Preliminary CMP tests are performed to understand material removal rate (MRR) with blanket wafer under a couple of polishing pressure and velocity. Based on the blanket CMP data, this paper focuses on the consumable approach to enhance MEMS CMP by the adjustment of slurry and pad. As a mechanical tool, newly developed microstructured (MS) pad is applied to compare with conventional pad (IC 1400-k Nitta-Haas), which is fabricated by micro melding method of polyurethane. To understand the CMP characteristics in real time, in-situ friction force monitoring system was used. Finally, the topography change of poly-si MEMS structures is compared according to the pattern density, size and shape as polishing time goes on.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.297-302
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• 2005

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) performances can be optimized by several process parameters such as equipment and consumables (pad, backing film and slurry). Pad properties are important in determining removal rate and planarization ability of a CMP process. It is investigated the performance of oxide CMP process using commercial silica slurry after the pad conditioning temperature was varied. Conditioning process with the high temperature made the slurry be unrestricted to flow and be hold, which made the removal rate of oxide film increase. The pad became softer and flexible as the conditioning temperature increases. Then the softer pad provided the better surface planarity of oxide film without defect.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.22-29
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• 2004

As a result of high integration of semiconductor device, the global planarization of multi-layer structures is necessary. So the chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) is widely applied to manufacturing the dielectric layer and metal line in the semiconductor device. CMP process is under influence of polisher, pad, slurry, and process itself, etc. In comparison with the general CMP which uses the slurry including abrasives, fixed abrasive pad takes advantage of planarity, resulting from decreasing pattern selectivity and defects such as dishing & erosion due to the reduction of abrasive concentration especially. This paper introduces the manufacturing technique of fixed abrasive pad using hydrophilic polymers with swelling characteristic in water and explains the self-conditioning phenomenon. And the tungsten CMP using fixed abrasive pad achieved the good conclusion in terms of the removal rate, non-uniformity, surface roughness, material selectivity, micro-scratch free contemporary with the pad life-time.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.17-24
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• 2003

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) has been applied for planarization of topography after patterning process in semiconductor fabrication process. Tungsten CMP is necessary to build up interconnects of semiconductor device. But the tungsten dishing and the oxide erosion defects appear at end-point during tungsten CMP. It has been known that the generation of dishing and erosion is based on the over-polishing time, which is determined by pattern selectivity. Fixed abrasive pad takes advantage of decreasing the defects resulting flam reducing pattern selectivity because of the lower abrasive concentration. The manufacturing technique of fixed abrasive pad using hydrophilic polymers is introduced in this paper. For application to tungsten CMP, chemicals composed of oxidizer, catalyst, and acid were developed. In comparison of the general pad and slurry for tungsten CMP, the fixed abrasive pad and the chemicals resulted in appropriate performance in point of removal rate, uniformity, material selectivity and roughness.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.303-307
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• 2007

This paper investigated the effect of the pad buffing process on the material removal characteristics and pad stabilization during silicon chemical mechanical polishing. The pads surface were controlled by the buffing process using a buffer made by the sandpaper. The buffing process is based on abrasive machining by using a high speed sandpaper. The controlled pad by the buffing process show less deformation deviation and stable material removal rate during the CMP process. In addition, the controlled pad ensure better uniformity of removal rate than comparative pads. As a result of monitoring, the controlled pad by the buffing process demonstrated constant and stable friction force signals from initial polishing stage. Therefore, the tufting process could control the pad surface to be uniform and improve the performance of the polishing pad.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.115-122
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• 2018

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a hybrid processing method in which the surface of a wafer is planarized by chemical and mechanical material removal. Since mechanical material removal in CMP is caused by the rolling or sliding of abrasive particles, interfacial friction during processing greatly influences the CMP results. In this paper, the trend of tribology research on CMP process is discussed. First, various friction force monitoring methods are introduced, and three elements in the CMP tribo-system are defined based on the material removal mechanism of the CMP process. Tribological studies on the CMP process include studies of interfacial friction due to changes in consumables such as slurry and polishing pad, modeling of material removal rate using contact mechanics, and stick-slip friction and scratches. The real area of contact (RCA) between the polishing pad and wafer also has a significant influence on the polishing result in the CMP process, and many researchers have studied RCA control and prediction. Despite the fact that the CMP process is a hybrid process using chemical reactions and mechanical material removal, tribological studies to date have yet to clarify the effects of chemical reactions on interfacial friction. In addition, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between the interface friction phenomenon and physical surface defects in CMP, and the cause of their occurrence.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.358-363
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• 2010

The polishing pad is important element for polishing characteristic such as material removal rate(MRR) and within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) in the chemical mechanical planarization(CMP). The result of the viscoelasticity measurement shows that 1st elastic modulus is increased and 2nd elastic modulus is decreased when the top pad is thickened. The finite element analysis(FEA) was conducted to predict characteristic of polishing behavior according to the pad thickness. The result of polishing experiment was similar with the FEA, and it shows that the 1st elastic modulus affects instantaneous deformation of pad related to MRR. And the 2nd elastic modulus has an effect on WIWNU due to the viscoelasticity deformation of pad.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.521-526
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• 2005

Within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) improves as the stiffness of pad decrease. We designed the pad groove to study of pad stiffness on WIWNU in Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) and measured the pad stiffness according to groove width. The groove influences effective pad stiffness although original mechanical properties of pad are unchanged by grooving. Also, it affects the flow of slurry that has an effect on the lubrication regime and polishing results. An Increase of the apparent contact area of pad by groove width results in decrease of effective pad stiffness. WIWNU and profile of removal tate improved as effective pad stiffness decreased. Because grooving the pad reduce its effective stiffness and it makes slurry distribution to be uniform. Futhermore, it ensures that pad conforms to wafer-scale flatness variability. By grooving the top pad, it is possible to reduce its stiffness and hence reduce WIWNU and edge effect.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.309-313
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• 2006

Pad surface characteristics such as roughness, groove and wear rate of pad have a effect on the within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) in chemical mechanical polishing(CMP). Although WIWNU increases as the uniformity of roughness(Rpk: Reduced peak height) becomes worse in an early stage of polishing time, WIWNU decreases as non-uniformity of the Rpk value. Also, WIWNU decreases with the reduction of the pad stiffness, though original mechanical properties of pad are unchanged by the grooving process. In addition, conditioning process causes the inequality of pad wear during in CMP. The profile of pad wear generated by the conditioning process has a significant effect on the WIWNU. These experiments results could help to understand the effect of pad surface characteristics in CMP.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.563-564
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• 2006

Recently, CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) is one of very important processing in semiconductor technology because of large integration and application of design role. CMP is a planarization process of wafer surface using the chemical and mechanical reactions. One of the most important components of the CMP system is the polishing pad. During the CMP process, the pad itself becomes smoother and glazing. Therefore it is necessary to have a pad conditioning process to refresh the pad surface, to remove slurry debris and to supply the fresh slurry on the surface. A diamond disk use during the pad conditioning. There are diamonds on the surface of diamond disk to remove slurry debris and to polish pad surface slightly, so density, shape and size of diamond are very important factors. In. this study, we characterized diamond disk with 9 kinds of sample.