• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.3
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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.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2000

We have investigated the slurry induced metallic contaminations of undoped and doped silicate oxides surface on CMP cleaning process. The metallic contaminations by CMP slurry were evaluated in four different oxide films, such as plasma enhanced tetra-ethyl-orthyo-silicate glass(PE-TEOS), O3 boro-phos-pho-silicate glass(O3-BPSG), PE-BPSG, and phospho-silicate glass(PSG). All films were polished with KOH-based slurry prior to entering the post-CMP cleaner. The Total X-Ray fluorescence(TXRF) measurements showed that all oxide surfaces are heavily contaminated by potassium and calcium during polishing which is due to a CMP slurry. The polished O3-BPSG films presented higher potassium and calcium contaminations compared to PE-TEOS because of a mobile ions gettering ability of phosphorus. For PSG oxides, the slurry induced mobile ion contamination increased with an increase of phosphorus contents. In addition, the polishing removal rate of PSG oxides had a linear relationship as a function of phosphorus contents.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07a
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• pp.247-251
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• 2004

Chemical-Mechanical Polishing(CMP) especially is becoming one of the most important ULSI processes for the 0.25m generation and beyond. And there are many elements affecting CMP performance such as slurry, pad, process parameters and pad conditioning. Among these elements the CMP pad is considered one of the most important because of its change. But the surface of the pad has irregular pores, so there is non-uniformity of slurry flow and of contact area between wafer and the pad, and glazing occurs on the surface of the pad. So we make CMP pad with micro structure using micro molding method. This paper introduces the basic concept and fabrication technique of CMP pad with micro-structure and the characteristic of polishing. Experimental results demonstrate the removal rate, uniformity, and time vs. removal rate.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.330-336
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• 2019

Conditioning is a process involving pad surface scraping by a moving metallic disk that is electrodeposited with diamond abrasives. It is an indispensable process in chemical-mechanical planarization, which regulates the pad roughness by removing the surface residues. Additionally, conditioning maintains the material removal rates and increases the pad lifetime. As the conditioning continues, the pad profile becomes unevenly to be deformed, which causes poor polishing quality. Simulation calculates the density at which the diamond abrasives on the conditioner scratch the unit area on the pad. It can predict the profile deformation through the control of conditioner dwell time. Previously, this effect of the diamond shape on conditioning has been investigated with regard to microscopic areas, such as surface roughness, rather than global pad-profile deformation. In this study, the effect of diamond shape on the pad profile is evaluated by comparing the simulated and experimental conditioning using two conditioners: a) random-shaped abrasive conditioner (RSC) and b) uniform-shaped abrasive conditioner (USC). Consequently, it is confirmed that the USC is incapable of controlling the pad profile, which is consistent with the simulation results.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.17-23
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• 2002

The more productive and stable fabrication can be obtained by applying chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to shallow trench isolation (STI) structure in 0.18 $\mu\textrm{m}$ semiconductor device. However, STI-CMP process became more complex, and some kinds of defect such as nitride residue, tern oxide defect were seriously increased. Defects like nitride residue and silicon damage after STI-CMP process were discussed to accomplish its optimum process condition. In this paper, we studied how to reduce torn oxide defects and nitride residue after STI-CMP process. To understand its optimum process condition, We studied overall STI-related processes including trench depth, STI-fill thickness and post-CMP thickness. As an experimental result showed that as the STI-fill thickness becomes thinner, and trench depth gets deeper, more tern oxide were found in the CMP process. Also, we could conclude that low trench depth whereas high CMP thickness can cause nitride residue, and high trench depth and over-polishing can cause silicon damage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.91-97
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• 2018

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) realizes a surface planarity through combined mechanical and chemical means. In CMP process, Preston equation is known as one of the most general approximation of the removal rate. Effects of pressure and relative speed on the mechanical property of Cu CMP has been investigated. On the other hand, The amount of abrasion also increased with changes in pressure and speed, resulting in a proportional increase of temperature during CMP. Especially this temperature is an important factor to change chemical reaction in a Cu CMP. However, when the slurry temperature became higher than $70^{\circ}C$, the removal rate went lower due to abrasives aggregation and scratching occurred on the Cu film. Therefore, it was found that the slurry temperature should not exceed $70^{\circ}C$ during Cu CMP. Finally, authors could increase the pressure, speed and slurry temperature up to a ceratin level to improve the removal rate without surface defects.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.72-75
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• 2023

Silicon carbide (SiC) is used as a substrate material for power semiconductors; however, SiC chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) requires considerable time owing to its chemical stability and high hardness. Therefore, researchers are attempting to increase the material removal rate (MRR) of SiC CMP using various methods. Mixed-abrasive CMP (MAS CMP) is one method of increasing the material removal efficiency of CMP by mixing two or more particles. The aim of this research is to study the mathematical modeling of the MRR of MAS CMP of SiC with SiO₂ and TiO₂ particles. With a total particle concentration of 32 wt, using 80-nm SiO₂ particles and 25-nm TiO₂ particles maximizes the MRR at 8 wt of the TiO₂ particle concentration. In the case of 5 nm TiO₂ particles, the MRR tends to increase with an increase in TiO₂ concentration. In the case of particle size 10-25 nm TiO₂, as the particle concentration increases, the MRR increases to a certain level and then decreases again. TiO₂ particles of 25 nm or more continuously decreased MRR as the particle concentration increased. In the model proposed in this study, the MRR of MAS CMP of SiC increases linearly with changes in pressure and relative speed, which shows the same result as the Preston's equation. These results can contribute to the future design of MAS; however, the model needs to be verified and improved in future experiments.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.67-70
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• 2024

Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) is an essential process for ensuring high integration when manufacturing semiconductor devices. CMP mainly requires the use of polyurethane-based polishing pads as an ultraprecise process to achieve mechanical material removal and the required chemical reactions. A diamond disk performs pad conditioning to remove processing residues on the pad surface and maintain sufficient surface roughness during CMP. However, the diamond grits attached to the disk cause uneven wear of the pad, leading to the poor uniformity of material removal during CMP. This study investigates the pad wear rate profile according to the swing motion of the conditioner during swing-arm-type CMP conditioning using deep learning. During conditioning, the motion of the swing arm is independently controlled in eight zones of the same pad radius. The experiment includes six swingmotion conditions to obtain actual data on the pad wear rate profile, and deep learning learns the pad wear rate profile obtained in the experiment. The absolute average error rate between the experimental values and learning results is 0.01%. This finding confirms that the experimental results can be well represented by learning. Pad wear rate profile prediction using the learning results reveals good agreement between the predicted and experimental values.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.34-38
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• 2005

Effects of pH level and slurry particle size on material removal rate and planarization of langasite single crystal wafer have been examined. Higher material removal rate was obtained with lower pH level slurries while the planarization was found to be determined by average particle size of colloidal silica slurries. Slurries containing 0.045 ㎛ amorphous silica particles showed the best polishing effect without any scratches on the surface. Effective particle number has a strong effect on the surface planarization and the removal rate, so that the lower effective particle numbers produced low removal rate but the better planarization results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.486-486
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• 2009

In this paper, the current-voltage (I-V) curves, such as linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV), were employed to evaluate the effect of electrolyte concentration on the electrochemical reaction trend. From the I-V curve, the electrochemical states of active, passive, transient and trans-passive could be characterized. And then, we investigated that how this chemical affect the process of voltage-induced material removal in electrochemical mechanical polishing (ECMP) of Copper. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy EDS) analyses were used to observe the surface profile. Finally, we monitored the oxidation and reduction process of the Cu surface by the repetition of anodic and cathodic potential from cyclic voltammetry (CV) method in acid- and alkali-based electrolyte. From these analyses, it was important to understand the electrochemical mechanisms of the ECMP technology.