• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.309-313
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• 2006

Pad surface characteristics such as roughness, groove and wear rate of pad have a effect on the within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) in chemical mechanical polishing(CMP). Although WIWNU increases as the uniformity of roughness(Rpk: Reduced peak height) becomes worse in an early stage of polishing time, WIWNU decreases as non-uniformity of the Rpk value. Also, WIWNU decreases with the reduction of the pad stiffness, though original mechanical properties of pad are unchanged by the grooving process. In addition, conditioning process causes the inequality of pad wear during in CMP. The profile of pad wear generated by the conditioning process has a significant effect on the WIWNU. These experiments results could help to understand the effect of pad surface characteristics in CMP.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.152-161
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• 2022

Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) is a technology that planarizes the surfaces of semiconductor devices using chemical reaction and mechanical material removal, and it is an essential process in manufacturing highly integrated semiconductors. In the CMP process, a conditioning process using a diamond conditioner is applied to remove by-products generated during processing and ensure the surface roughness of the CMP pad. In previous studies, prediction of pad wear by CMP conditioning has depended on numerical analysis studies based on mathematical simulation. In this study, using an artificial neural network, the ratio of conditioner coverage to the distance between centers in the conditioning system is input, and the average conditioning density, standard deviation, nonuniformity (NU), and conditioning density distribution are trained as targets. The result of training seems to predict the target data well, although the average conditioning density, standard deviation, and NU in the contact area of wafer and pad and all areas of the pad have some errors. In addition, in the case of NU, the prediction calculated from the training results of the average conditioning density and standard deviation can reduce the error of training compared with the results predicted through training. The results of training on the conditioning density profile generally follow the target data well, confirming that the shape of the conditioning density profile can be predicted.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1027-1033
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• 2007

In this research, the polishing pad for W CMP has been analyzed to understand stabilization of polishing performance. For stabilization of process, the polishing pad condition is one of important factors. The polishing pad plays a key role in polishing process, because it contact with reacted surface of wafer[1]. The physical property of pad surface is ruled by conditioning tool which makes roughness and profile of pad surface. Pad surface affects on polishing performance such as RR(Removal Rate) and uniformity in CMP. The stabilized pad surface has stable roughness. And its surface has high level of wettability which can increase the probability of abrasive adhesion on pad. The result of this research is that the reduction of break-in and dummy polishing process were achieved by artificial machining to make stable pad surface. In this research, urethane polishing pad which is named IC pad(Nitta-Haas Inc.) and has micro pore structure, is studied. Because, this type of pad is the most conventional type.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 1996

In order to rpovide proper SMT design criteria in a systematic way, a mathematical formulation has been developed to predict the configuration of the solder fillet formed between the gullwing type lead and rectangular pad. Effects of SMT design parameters such as the solder volume and pad dimension on the solder profile are investigated using the FEM that calculates the 3D configuration by minimizing the energy due to surface tension and gravity in the equilibrium state. Design criteria of QFP and SOP are illustrated by plotting the acceptable range of the solder volume with respect to the length and width ratios of the pad and lead. The results show that the acceptable design range increases with increase in the pad length and width. The pad length has more significant effects on design criteria compared with the pad width, and Bond number can be utilized to predict the joint quality.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.521-526
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• 2005

Within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) improves as the stiffness of pad decrease. We designed the pad groove to study of pad stiffness on WIWNU in Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) and measured the pad stiffness according to groove width. The groove influences effective pad stiffness although original mechanical properties of pad are unchanged by grooving. Also, it affects the flow of slurry that has an effect on the lubrication regime and polishing results. An Increase of the apparent contact area of pad by groove width results in decrease of effective pad stiffness. WIWNU and profile of removal tate improved as effective pad stiffness decreased. Because grooving the pad reduce its effective stiffness and it makes slurry distribution to be uniform. Futhermore, it ensures that pad conforms to wafer-scale flatness variability. By grooving the top pad, it is possible to reduce its stiffness and hence reduce WIWNU and edge effect.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.38-39
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• 2005

We have investigated the effect of the pad surface characteristics such as roughness, groove density and wear of pad on within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) in chemical mechanical polishing(CMP). We found that WIWNU increases as pad surface roughness($R_{pk}$; Reduced peak height) increases in an early stage of polishing. But after polishing time goes to a certain extent, WIWNU decreases as uniformity of pad surface roughness. Also, groove of pad has effect on relative pad stiffness although original mechanical properties of pad are unchanged by grooving. WIWNU decreases as relative pad stiffness decreases. In addition, conditioning process causes non-uniform wear of pad during in CMP. The profile of pad wear has a significant effect on WIWNU.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.171-175
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• 2001

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process has been widely used to planarize dielectrics and metal, 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 and metal. Especially, defects like (micro-scratch) lead to severe circuit failure, and affects yield. Current conditioning method - bladder type, orbital pad motion- usually provides unsuitable pad profile during ex-situ conditioning near the end of pad life. Since much of the pad wear occurs by the mechanism of bladder type conditioning and its orbital motion without rotation, we need to implement new ex-situ conditioner which can prevent abnormal regional force on pad caused by bladder-type and also need to rotate the pad during conditioning. Another important study of ADPC is related to the orbital scratch of which source is assumed as diamond grit dropped from the strip during ex-situ conditioning. Scratch from diamond grit damaged wafer severely so usually scraped. Figure 1 shows the typical shape of scratch damaged from diamond. e suspected that intensive forces to the edge area of bladder type stripper accelerated the drop of Diamond grit during conditioning. so new designed Flat stripper was introduced.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07b
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• pp.1308-1311
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• 2004

It is very important that get polishing characteristic that to be stable that accomplish planarization of high efficiency in chemical mechanical polishing, and there is repeatability Groove of pad causes much effects in flow of slurry among various factors that influence in polishing characteristic, is expected to cause change of lubrication state and polishing characteristic in contact between wafer and pad. Therefore, divided factors of pad groove by groove pattern, groove profile, groove dimensions. This research wishes to study effect that dimension of pad groove gets in polishing performance. When changed dimension (width, depth, pitch of groove) of groove, measured change of removal rate and friction force. According as groove dimension changes, could confirm that removal rate and friction force change. While result of this experiment studies effect of pad groove in CMP, it is expected to become small help.