• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.362-365
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• 2005

Currently Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) has become an essential step in the overall semiconductor wafer fabrication technology. Especially the CMP pad conditioner, one of the diamond tools, is required to have strong diamond retention. Strong cohesion between diamond grits and metal matrix prevents macro scratch on the wafer. If diamond retention is weak, the diamond will be pulled out of metal matrix. The pulled diamond grits are causative of macro scratch on wafer during CMP process. Firstly, some results will be reported of cohesion between diamond grits and metal matrix on the diamond tools prepared by three different manufacturing methods. A measuring instrument with sharp cemented carbide connected with a push-pull gauge was manufactured to measure the cohesion between diamond grits and metal matrix. The retention force of brazed diamond tool was stronger than the others. The retention force was also increased in proportion to the contact area of diamond grits and metal matrix. The brazed diamond tool has a strong chemical combination of the interlayer composed of chrome in metal matrix and carbon which enhance the interfacial cohesion strength between diamond grits and metal matrix. Secondly, we measured real-time data of the coefficient of friction and the pad wear rate by using CMP tester (CETR, CP-4). CMP pad conditioner samples were manufactured by brazed, electro-plated and sintered methods. The coefficient of friction and the pad wear rate were shown differently according to the arranged diamond patterns. Consequently, the coefficient of friction is increased according as the space between diamonds is increased or the concentration of diamonds is decreased. The pad wear rate is increased according as the degree of diamond protrusion is increased.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.569-572
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• 2003

In this study, we evaluated the dilute HF cleaning to reduce residual defects made by metal CMP process. The purpose of this test is to observe the existence of barrier metal damage during DHF cleaning on condition that it should not affect metal thin film reliability, so we will get rid of slurry residual particles as a main defect of the metal CMP process for the better yield. In-line defect data showed us that slurry residual particles were removed by DHF application. The HF rinse significantly reduced metal contamination levels and surface roughness. The best effect by additional oxide loss was discovered when Dilute HF condition is 10".

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1128-1129
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• 2006

Currently Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) has become an essential step in the overall semiconductor wafer fabrication technology. Especially the CMP pad conditioner, one of the diamond tools, is required to have strong diamond cohesion. Strong cohesion between diamond and metal matrix prevents macro scratch on the wafer during CMP Process. Typically the diamond tool has been manufactured by sintered, brazed and electro-plated methods. In this paper, some results will be reported of cohesion between diamond and metal matrix of the diamond tools prepared by three different manufacturing methods. The cohesion force of brazed diamond tool is found stronger than the others. This cohesion force is increased in reverse proportion to the contact area of diamond and metal matrix. The brazed diamond tool has a strong chemical combination of the interlayer composed of Cr in metal matrix and C in diamond, which enhance the interfacial cohesion strength between diamonds and metal matrix.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.12
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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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.727-730
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• 2004

In this paper, so as to investigate the influence of oxidizer for each metal film using the alumina-based slurry, we have peformed the W/Ti metal-CMP process by adding $H_2O_2$ as a representative oxidizer from 1 wt% to 9 wt%, respectively. As an experimental result, for the case of 5 wt% oxidizer added, the removal rates were improved and polishing selectivity of 1.4 : 1 was obtained. Also, we compared the effects of oxidizer or W-CMP process with three different kind of oxidizers with 5 wt% hydrogen peroxide such as $Fe(NO_3)_3$, $H_2O_2$, and $KIO_3$. Finally, atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements were carried out for the analysis of surface morphology and root mean square (RMS) roughness after CMP Process.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.385-389
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• 2003

There are four main components of the CMP process: polishing pad, slurry, elastic supporter, and pad conditioner. The polishing pad is an essential component to the reproducibility of polishing uniformity in CMP process. However, the polishing pad in recently using metal CMP raised the several points of high cost caused by the increase of cycle time and the many usage of slurry. It is necessary to develop the novel polishing pad which would lead the cost reduction by the higher pad life-cycle, minimized cycle time and lower slurry usage. The characteristics of polishing pad were studied on the effects of different sets of the Polishing pad, which can be applied to metal chemical mechanical polishing process for global planarization of multilevel interconnection structure. The main purpose of this experiment is cost reduction by the increase of pad life-time, the decrease of cycle time and the lower usage of slurry through the specific hard porous structured pad design. It is confirmed that the novel polishing pad made the slurry usage decrease to 60% as well as the pad life-time increase twice with the 25% improvement of removal rate. The polishing time could be decreased and it also helped the cycle time to diminish. It can be expected that this results will help both the process throughput and the device yield to be improved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.147-150
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• 2002

In this study, we evaluated the dilute HF Cleaning to reduce residual defects made by W CMP process. But, One point we should focus is It should not effect to metal thin film reliability. The purpose of this test is to verify barrier metal damage during HF cleaning and based on this result we get rid of slurry residue defect which is main defect of W CMP process for the better yield.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.655-656
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• 2005

In the future, plastic based system will play a crucial role in modem life, for examples, transparent display or disposable electronics and so on. In this paper, we introduced a new method to fabricate the metal line on the plastic substrate. Metal lines were fabricated by hot embossing and CMP process on PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) substrates. A Si mold was made by wet etching process and a PMMA wafer was cut off from I mm thick PMMA sheet. A 100 nm thick Al was deposited on PMMA wafers. The Al deposited PMMA wafer and the Si mold carefully sandwiched which was directly imprinted by hot embossing. After imprinting process, a residual Al layer was removed by CMP process. Finally, we found the entire process may be very useful to fabricate the metal line on plastic substrates.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.456-460
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• 1997

As device sizes are scaled to submicron dimensions, planarization technology becomes increasing1y important, both during device fabrication and during formation of multilevel interconnects and wiring. Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) has emerged recently as a new processing technique for achieving a high degree of planarization for submicron VLSI applications. This paper is presented the results of CMP process window characterization studies for 0.35 micron process with 6 metal layers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.05b
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• pp.30-33
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• 2001

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process has been widely used to planarize dielectrics, which can apply to employed in integrated circuits for sub-micron technology. Despite the increased use of CMP process, it is difficult to accomplish the global planarization of free-defects in inter-level dielectrics (ILD). Especially, defects like micro-scratch lead to severe circuit failure, and affects yield. CMP slurries can contain particles exceeding $1{\mu}m$ size, which could cause micro-scratch on the wafer surface. The large particles in these slurries may be caused by particle agglomeration in slurry supply line. To reduce these defects, slurry filtration method has been recommended in oxide CMP. In this work, we have studied the effects of filtration and the defect trend as a function of polished wafer count using various filters in inter-metal dielectric(IMD)-CMP. The filter installation in CMP polisher could reduce defect after IMD-CMP. As a result of micro-scratches formation, it shows that slurry filter plays an important role in determining consumable pad lifetime.