• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.118-118
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• 2008

The oxide CMP has been applied to interlayer dielectric(ILD) and shallow trench isolation (STI) in chip fabrication. Recently the slurry used in oxide CMP being changed from silica slurry to ceria (cerium dioxide) slurry particularly in STI CMP, because the material selectivity of ceria slurry is better than material selectivity of silica slurry. Moreover, the ceria slurry has good a planarization efficiency, compared with silica slurry. However ceria abrasives make a material removal rate too high at the region of wafer center. Then we focuses on why profile of material removal rate is convex. The material removal rate sharply increased to 3216 $\AA$/min by $4^{th}$ run without conditioning. After $4^{th}$ run, material removal rate converged. Furthermore, profile became more convex during 12 run. And average material removal rate decreased when conditioning process is added to end of CMP process. This is due to polishing mechanism of ceria. Then the ceria abrasive remains at the pad, in particular remains more at wafer center contacted region of pad. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) images showed that the pad sample in the wafer center region has a more ceria abrasive than in wafer outer region. The energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) verified the result that ceria abrasive is deposited and more at the region of wafer center. Therefore, this result may be expected as ceria abrasives on pad surface causing the convex profile of material removal rate.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.87-88
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• 2006

To investigate the possibility of ceria abrasive-added slurry for the oxide-chemical mechanical polishing (oxide-CMP) application, two kinds of retreated methods were introduced as follows: First, the characteristics of mixed abrasive slurry (MAS) using $CeO_2$ powder as an abrasive added within diluted silica slurry (DSS) were evaluated to achieve the improvement of removal rates and non-uniformity. Second, the control of pH level due to the dilution of slurry was examined. And then, we have discussed the CMP characteristics as a function of abrasive dispersion time.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.301-302
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• 2010

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2004

Through shallow trench isolation (STI) chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) tests, we investigated the dependence of pad surface temperature on the abrasive and additive concentrations in ceria slurry under varying pressure using blanket film wafers. The pad surface temperature after CMP increased with the abrasive concentration and decreased with the additive concentration in slurries for the constant down pressure. A possible mechanism is that the additive adsorbed on the film surfaces during polishing decreases the friction coefficient, hence the pad surface temperature gets lower with increasing the additive concentration. This difference in temperature was more remarkable for the higher concentration of abrasives. In addition, in-situ measurement of spindle motor was carried out during oxide and nitride polishing. The averaged motor current for oxide film was higher than that for nitride film, meaning the higher friction coefficient.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.63-63
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• 2003

The nanotopography of silicon wafers has emerged as an important factor in the STI process since it affects the post-CMP thickness deviation (OTD) of dielectric films. Ceria slurry with surfactant is widely applied to STI-CMP as it offers high oxide-to-nitride removal selectivity. Aiming to control the nanotopography impact through ceria slurry characteristics, we examhed the effect of surfactant concentration and abrasive size on the nanotopography impact. The ceria slurries for this study were produced with cerium carbonate as the starting material. Four kinds of slurry with different size of abrasives were prepared through a mechanical treatment The averaged abrasive size for each slurry varied from 70 nm to 290 nm. An anionic organic surfactant was added with the concentration from 0 to 0.8 wt %. We prepared commercial 8 inch silicon wafers. Oxide Shu were deposited using the plasma-enhanced tetra-ethyl-ortho-silicate (PETEOS) method, The films on wafers were polished on a Strasbaugh 6EC. Film thickness before and after CMP was measured with a spectroscopic ellipsometer, ES4G (SOPRA). The nanotopogrphy height of the wafer was measured with an optical interferometer, NanoMapper (ADE Phase Shift)

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.173-184
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• 2019

As the size of semiconductors becomes smaller, it is necessary to perform high precision polishing of nanoscale. Ceria, which is generally used as an abrasive, is widely used because of its uniform quality, but its stability is not high because it has a high molecular weight and causes agglomeration and rapid precipitation. Such agglomeration and precipitation causes scratches in the polishing process. Therefore, it is important to accurately analyze the size distribution of ceria particles. In this study, a study was conducted to select dispersants useful for preventing coagulation and sedimentation of ceria. First, a dispersant was synthesized and a ceria slurry was prepared. The defoamer selection experiment was performed in order to remove the air bubbles which may occur in the production of ceria slurry. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AsFlFFF) were used to determine the size distribution of ceria particles in the slurry. AsFlFFF is a technique for separating nanoparticles based on sequential elution of samples as in chromatography, and is a useful technique for determining the particle size distribution of nanoparticle samples. AsFlFFF was able to confirm the presence of a little quantities of large particles in the vicinity of 300 nm, which DLS can not detect, besides the main distribution in the range of 60-80 nm. AsFlFFF showed better accuracy and precision than DLS for particle size analysis of a little quantities of large particles such as ceria slurry treated in this study.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.53-57
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• 2007

In this study, a novel slurry containing ceria as the abrasive particles was analyzed in terms of its frictional, thermal and kinetic attributes for interlayer dielectric (ILD) CMP application. The novel slurry was used to polish 200-mm blanket ILD wafers on an $IC1000_{TM}$ K-groove pad with in-situ conditioning. Polishing pressures ranged from 1 to 5 PSI and the sliding velocity ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 m/s. Shear force and pad temperature were measured in real time during the polishing process. The frictional analysis indicated that boundary lubrication was the dominant tribological mechanism. The measured average pad leading edge temperature increased from 26.4 to $38.4\;^{\circ}C$ with the increase in polishing power. The ILD removal rate also increased with the polishing power, ranging from 400 to 4000 A/min. The ILD removal rate deviated from Prestonian behavior at the highest $p{\times}V$ polishing condition and exhibited a strong correlation with the measured average pad leading edge temperature. A modified two-step Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model was used to simulate the ILD removal rate. In this model, transient flash heating temperature is assumed to dominate the chemical reaction temperature. The model successfully captured the variable removal rate behavior at the highest $p{\times}V$ polishing condition and indicates that the polishing process was mechanical limited in the low $p{\times}V$ polishing region and became chemically and mechanically balanced with increasing polishing power.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.402-402
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.37-38
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• 2013

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.167-172
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• 2006

Submicron colloidal silica coated with ceria were prepared by mixing of silica and nano ceria particles and modified by hydrothermal reaction. The polishing efficiency of the ceria coated silica slurry was tested over oxide film on silicon wafer. By changing the polishing pressure in the range of $140{\sim}420g/cm^2$ with the ceria coated silica slurries in $100{\sim}300nm$, rates, WIWNU and friction force were measured. The removal rate was in the order of 200, 100, and 300 nm size silica coated with ceria. It was known that the smaller particle size gives the higher removal rate with higher contact area in Cu slurry. In the case of oxide film, the indentation volume as well as contact area gives effect on the removal rate depending on the size of abrasives. The indentation volume increase with the size of abrasive particles, which results to higher removal rate. The highest removal rate in 200 nm silica core coated with ceria is discussed as proper combination of indentation and contact area effect.