• 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.32 no.2
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• pp.44-49
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• 2016

Diamond mechanical polishing (DMP) is a crucial process in a sapphire wafering process to improve flatness and achieve the target thickness by using free abrasives. In a DMP process, material removal rate (MRR) is a key factor to reduce process time and cost. Controlling mechanical parameters, such as velocity and pressure, can increase the MRR in a DMP process. However, there are limitations of using high velocities and pressures for achieving a high MRR owing to their side effects. In this paper, we present the lapping characteristics and improvement of MRR by using a fixed abrasive plate through an experimental study. The change in MRR as a function of velocity and pressure follows Preston's equation. The surface roughness of a wafer decreases as the plate velocity and pressure increases. We observe a sharp decrease in MRR over the lapping time at a high velocity and pressure in the velocity and pressure test. An analysis of surface roughness (Rq and Rpk) indicates that wear of abrasives decreases the MRR sharply. In order to investigate the effect of abrasive wear on the MRR, we utilize a cutting fluid and a rough wafer. The cutting fluid delays the wear of abrasives resulting in improvement of MRR drop. The rough wafer maintains the MRR at a stable rate by self-dressing.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2016

This study investigates the characteristics of the sapphire wafer chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. The material removal rate is one of the most important factors since it has a significant impact on the production efficiency of a sapphire wafer. Some of the factors affecting the material removal rate include the pressure, platen speed and slurry. Among the factors affecting the CMP process, we analyzed the trends in the material removal rate and surface roughness, which are mechanical factors corresponding to both the pressure and platen speed, were analyzed. We also analyzed the increase in the material removal rate, which is proportional to the pressure and platen speed, using the Preston equation. In the experiment, after polishing a 4-inch sapphire wafer with increasing pressure and platen speed, we confirmed the material removal rate via thickness measurements. Further, surface roughness measurements of the sapphire wafer were performed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) equipment. Using the measurement results, we analyzed the trends in the surface roughness with the increase in material removal rate. In addition, the experimental results, confirmed that the material removal rate increases in proportion to the pressure and platen speed. However, the results showed no association between the material removal rate and surface roughness. The surface roughness after the CMP process showed a largely consistent trend. This study demonstrates the possibility to improve the production efficiency of sapphire wafer while maintaining stable quality via mechanical factors associated with the CMP process.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.236-236
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• 2008

(Bi,La)$Ti_3O_{12}$(BLT) thin film is one of the most attractive materials for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) applications due to its some excellent properties such as high fatigue endurance, low processing temperature, and large remanent polarization [1-2]. The authors firstly investigated and reported the damascene process of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) for BLT thin film capacitor on behalf of plasma etching process for fabrication of FRAM [3]. CMP process could prepare the BLT capacitors with the superior process efficiency to the plasma etching process without the well-known problems such as plasma damages and sloped sidewall, which was enough to apply to the fabrication of FRAM [2]. BLT-CMP characteristics showed the typical oxide-CMP characteristics which were related in both pressure and velocity according to Preston's equation and Hernandez's power law [2-4]. Good surface roughness was also obtained for the densification of multilevel memory structure by CMP process [3]. The well prepared BLT capacitors fabricated by CMP process should have the sufficient ferroelectric properties for FRAM; therefore, in this study the electrical properties of the BLT capacitor fabricated by CMP process were analyzed with the process parameters. Especially, the effects of CMP pressure, which had mainly affected the removal rate of BLT thin films [2], on the electrical properties were investigated. In order to check the influences of the pressure in eMP process on the ferroelectric properties of BLT thin films, the electrical test of the BLT capacitors was performed. The polarization-voltage (P-V) characteristics show a decreased the remanent polarization (Pr) value when CMP process was performed with the high pressure. The shape of the hysteresis loop is close to typical loop of BLT thin films in case of the specimen after CMP process with the pressures of 4.9 kPa; however, the shape of the hysteresis loop is not saturated due to high leakage current caused by structural and/or chemical damages in case of the specimen after CMP process with the pressures of 29.4 kPa. The leakage current density obtained with positive bias is one order lower than that with negative bias in case of 29.4 kPa, which was one or two order higher than in case of 4.9 kPa. The high pressure condition was not suitable for the damascene process of BLT thin films due to the defects in electrical properties although the better efficiency of process. by higher removal rate of BLT thin films was obtained with the high pressure of 29.4 kPa in the previous study [2].