• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.51 no.5
• /
• pp.191-195
• /
• 2002

Chemical mechanical Polishing (CMP) process is widely used for the global planarization of inter-metal dielectric (IMD) layer and inter-layer dielectric (ILD) for deep sub-micron technology. However, as the IMD and ILD layer gets thinner, defects such as micro-scratch lead to severe circuit failure, which affect yield. In this paper, for the improvement of CMP process, deionized water (DIW) pressure, purified $N_2$ ($PN_2$) gas, point of use (POU) slurry filler and high spray bar (HSB) were installed. Our experimental results show that DW pressure and P$N_2$ gas factors were not related with removal rate, but edge hot-spot of patterned wafer had a serious relation. Also, the filter installation in CMP polisher could reduce defects after CMP process, it is shown that slurry filter plays an important role in determining consumable pad lifetime. The filter lifetime is dominated by the defects. However, the slurry filter is impossible to prevent defect-causing particles perfectly. Thus, we suggest that it is necessary to install the high spray bar of de-ionized water (DIW) with high pressure, to overcome the weak-point of slurry filter Finally, we could expect the improvements of throughput, yield and stability in the ULSI fabrication process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.523-524
• /
• 2007

This paper discusses the planarization process of thick copper film structure used for power supply device. Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) has been used to remove a metal film and obtain a surface planarization which is essential for the semiconductor devices. For the thick metal removal, however, the long process time and other problems such as dishing, delamination and metal layer peeling are being issued, Compared to the traditional CMP process, Electro-chemical mechanical planarization(ECMP) is suggested to solve these problems. The two-step process composed of the ECMP and the conventional CMP is used for this experiment. The first step is the removal of several tens ${\mu}m$ of bulk copper on patterned wafer with ECMP process. The second step is the removal of residual copper layer aimed at a surface planarization. For more objective comparison, the traditional CMP was also performed. As an experimental result, total process time and process defects are extremely reduced by the two-step process.

• 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
• /
• 2004.11a
• /
• pp.731-734
• /
• 2004

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. Polishing pads play a key role in CMP, which has been recognized as a critical step to improve the topography of wafers for semiconductor fabrication. It is investigated the performance of $SiO_2-CMP$ process using commercial silica slurry as a pad conditioning temperature increased after CMP process. This study also showed the change of SEM images in the pore geometry on the CMP pad surface after use with a different pad conditioning temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2004.07a
• /
• pp.252-255
• /
• 2004

반도체는 high integrated, high speed, low power를 위하여 design 뿐만 아니라 재료 측면에서도 많은 변화를 가져오고 있으며, RC delay time을 줄이기 위하여 Al 배선보다 비저항이 낮은 Cu와 low-k material 적용이 그 대표적인 예이다. 그러나, Cu 배선의 경우 dry etching이 어려우므로, 기존의 공정으로는 그 한계를 가지므로 damascene 또는 dual damascene 공정이 소개, 적용되고 있다. Damascene 공정은 절연막에 photo와 RIE 공정을 이용하여 trench를 형성시킨 후 electrochemical plating 공정을 이용하여 trench에 Cu를 filling 시킨다. 이후 CMP 공정을 이용하여 절연막 위의 Cu와 barrier material을 제거함으로서 Cu 배선을 형성하게 된다. Dual damascene 공정은 trench와 via를 동시에 형성시키는 기술로 현재 대부분의 Cu 배선 공정에 적용되고 있다. Cu CMP는 기존의 metal CMP와 마찬가지로 oxidizer를 이용한 Cu film의 화학반응과 연마 입자의 기계가공이 기본 메커니즘이다. Cu CMP에서 backside pressure 영향이 uniformity에 미치는 영향을 살펴보았으며, electrochemical plating 공정에서 발생하는 hump가 CMP 결과에 미치는 영향과 dishing 결과를 통하여 그 영향을 평가하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2012.10a
• /
• pp.35-36
• /
• 2012

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.321-326
• /
• 2005

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process is essential technology to be applied to manufacturing the dielectric layer and metal line in semiconductor devices. It has been known that overpolishing in CMP depends on pattern selectivity as a function of density and pitch, and use of fixed abrasive pad(FAP) is one method which can improve the pattern selectivity. Thus, dishing & erosion defects can be reduced. This paper introduces the manufacturing technique of FAP using hydrophilic polymers with swelling characteristic in water and explains the self-conditioning phenomenon. When applied to tungsten blanket wafers, the FAP resulted in appropriate performance in point of uniformity, material selectivity and roughness. Especially, reduced dishing and erosion was observed in CMP of tungsten pattern wafer with the proposed FAP.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.51 no.7
• /
• pp.311-315
• /
• 2002

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process was required for the global planarization of inter-metal dielectric(IMD), inter-level dielectric (ILD) layers of multi-layer interconnections. In this paper, we studied the characteristics of polishing pad, which can apply shallow trench isolation (STI)-CMP process for global planarization of multi-level interconnection structure. Also, we investigated the effects of different sets of polishing pad, such as soft and hard pad. As an experimental result, hard pad showed center-fast type, and soft pad showed edge-fast type. Totally, the defect level has shown little difference, however, the counts of scratch was detected less than 2 on JR111 pad. Through the above results, we can select optimum polishing pad, so we can expect the improvements of throughput and device yield.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.13 no.3 s.40
• /
• pp.47-51
• /
• 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 conditioning disk is used 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.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.47 no.6
• /
• pp.608-613
• /
• 2003

In order to remove particles on surface of post-oxide CMP wafer, new cleaning solution was prepared by mixing with DHF (Diluted HF), nonionic surfactant PAAE (Polyoxyethylene Alkyl Aryl Ether), DMSO (Dimethylsulfoxide) and D.I.W.. Silicone wafers were intentionally contaminated by silica, alumina and PSL (polystylene latex) which had different zeta potentials in cleaning solution. This cleaning solution under megasonic irradiation could remove particles and metals simultaneously at room temperature in contrast to traditional AMP (mixture of $NH_4OH,\;H_2O_2$ and D.I.W) without any side effects such as increasing of microroughness, metal line corrosion and deposition of organic contaminants. This suggests that this cleaning solution would be useful future application with copper CMP in brush cleaning process as well as traditional post CMP cleaning process.