• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.226-234
• /
• 2018

Copper chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) has become a key process in integrated circuit (IC) technology. The results of copper CMP depend not only on the mechanical abrasion, but also on the slurry chemistry. The slurry used for Cu CMP is known to have greater chemical reactivity than mechanical material removal. The Cu CMP slurry is composed of abrasive particles, an oxidizing agent, a complexing agent, and a corrosion inhibitor. Citric acid can be used as the complexing agent in Cu CMP slurries, and is widely used for post-CMP cleaning. Although many studies have investigated the effect of citric acid on Cu CMP, no studies have yet been conducted on the interfacial friction characteristics and step height reduction in CMP patterns. In this study, the effect of citric acid on the friction characteristics and step height reduction in a copper wafer with varying pattern densities during CMP are investigated. The prepared slurry consists of citric acid ($C_6H_8O_7$), hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$), and colloidal silica. The friction force is found to depend on the concentration of citric acid in the copper CMP slurry. The step heights of the patterns decrease rapidly with decreasing citric acid concentration in the copper CMP slurry. The step height of the copper pattern decreases more slowly in high-density regions than in low-density regions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.112-112
• /
• 2008

최근 Ruthenium (Ru) 은 높은 화학적 안정성, 누설전류에 대한 높은 저항성, 저유전체와의 높은 안정성 등과 같은 특성으로 인해 금속층-유전막-금속층 캐패시터의 하부전극으로 각광받고 있다. 또한 Cu와의 우수한 Adhesion 특성으로 인해 Cu 배선에서의 Cu 확산 방지막으로도 주목받고 있다. 그러나 이렇게 형성된 Ru 하부전극의 각 캐패시터간의 분리와 평탄화를 위해서는 CMP 공정이 도입이 필요하다. 이러한 CMP 공정에 공급되는 Slurry 에는 부식액, pH 적정제, 연마입자 등이 첨가되는데 이때 연마입자가 응집하여 Slurry의 분산 안전성 저하에 영향을 줄수 있다. 이로 인해 응집된 Slurry는 Scratch와 Delamination 과 같은 표면 결함을 유발할 수 있으며, Slurry의 저장 안정성을 저하시켜 Slurry의 물리적 화학적 특성을 변화시킬 수 있다. 그리하여 본 연구에서는 Ru CMP Slurry에서의 Surfactant와 같은 분산 안정제에 따른 Surface tension, Zeta potential, Particle size, Sedimentation의 분석을 통해 Slurry 안정성에 대한 영향을 살펴보았다. 그 결과 pH9 조건의 31ppm Dispersant 농도에서 50%이상의 Sedimentation 상승효과를 얻을 수 있었다. 또한 선택된 Surfactant가 첨가된 Ru CMP Slurry를 제조하여 Ru wafer의 Static etch rate, Passivation film thickness 와 Wettability를 비교해 보았다. 그리고 CMP 공정을 실시하여 Ru의 Removal rate와 TEOS에대한 Selectivity를 측정해 보았다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2005.06a
• /
• pp.434-437
• /
• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.372-373
• /
• 2006

Chemical kinetics affects Cu CMP results (removal rate, Non uniformity etc.) Because Cu is removed by chemical action. Key factors in chemical kinetics are process temperature and concentration of slurry components. In this study, Hydrogen peroxide and citric acid were selected as a oxidant and a complexing agent and Slurry were made by mixing this components. In order to study effects of Chemical Kinetics, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were performed on Cu sample after etching test as concentration of citric acid and slurry temperature. Finally Cu CMP was performed as same conditions.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.274-278
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study was to characterize the reaction of Cu surface with Cu slurry and CMP performance as a function of additives in CMP slurry. The polish rate of Cu was dependent on the kind of organic acids added in slurry. It was considered that polish rate of Cu was dependent on the concentration of carboxylates and mean particle size. When the etchant and oxidant were added in slurry, the highest removal rate and lower etch rate were measured at neutral pH. The addition of etchant, oxidant and pH adjustor played key roles of CMP ability in slurry. As the pH increased, polish rate of Cu was increased by the enhanced the mechanical effects due to effective dispersion of slurry particles. Alumina abrasives was more desirable for 1st step slurry because of high removal rate of Cu and high selectivity ratio among TaN and Cu.

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

• Proceedings of the Korean Ceranic Society Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.65.1-65
• /
• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2003.07a
• /
• pp.370-373
• /
• 2003

As the integrated circuit device shrinks to the smaller dimension, the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process was required for the global planarization of inter-metal dielectric(IMD) layer with free-defect. However, as the IMD layer gets thinner, micro-scratches are becoming as major defects. Chemical-Mechanical Planarization(CMP) of conductors is a key process in Damascene patterning of advanced interconnect structure. The effect of alternative commerical slurries pads, and post-CMP cleaning alternatives are discuess, with removal rate, scratch dentisty, surface roughness, dishing, erosion and particulate density used as performance metrics. Electroplated copper depostion is a mature process from a historical point of view, but a very young process from a CMP persperspective. While copper electrodepostion has been used and stuidied for dacades, its application to Cu damascene wafer processing is only now ganing complete accptance in the semiconductor industry. The polishing mechanism of Cu CMP process has been reported as the repeated process of passive layer formation by oxidizer and abrasion action by slurry abrasives. however it is important to understand the effect of oxidizer on copper pasivation layer in order to obtain higher removal rate and non-uniformity during Cu-CMP process. In this paper, we investigated the effects of oxidizer on Cu-CMP process regarding the additional volume of oxidizer.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2002.11a
• /
• pp.56-56
• /
• 2002

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.426-430
• /
• 2005

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is an essential process in the production of integrated circuits containing copper interconnects. The effect of alanine in reactive slurries representative of those that might be used in copper CMP was studied with the aim of improving selectivity between copper(Cu) film and tantalum-nitride(TaN) film. We investigated the pH effect of nano-colloidal silica slurry containing alanine through the chemical mechanical polishing test for the 8(inch) blanket wafers as deposited Cu and TaN film, respectively. The copper and tantalum-nitride removal rate decreased with the increase of pH and reaches the neutral at pH 7, then, with the further increase of pH to alkaline, the removal rate rise to increase soddenly. It was found that alkaline slurry has a higher removal rate than acidic and neutral slurries for copper film, but the removal rate of tantalum-nitride does not change much. These tests indicated that alanine may improve the CMP process by controlling the selectivity between Cu and TaN film.