• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.04b
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• pp.35-38
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• 2000

In this study, the rise throughput and the stability in fabrication of device can be obtained by applying of CMP process to STI structure in 0.l8um semiconductor device. Through reverse moat pattern process, reduced moat density at high moat density, STI CMP process with low selectivity could be to fit polish uniformity between low moat density and high moat density. Because this reason, in-situ motor current end point detection method is not fit to the current EPD technology with the reverse moat pattern. But we use HSS without reverse moat pattern on STI CMP and take end point current sensing signal.[1] To analyze sensing signal and test extracted signal, we can to adjust wafer difference within $110{\AA}$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.04b
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• pp.14-17
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• 2000

The rise throughput and the stability in fabrication of device can be obtained by applying of CMP process to STI structure in 0.18um semiconductor device. To employ in STI CMP, the reverse moat process has been added thus the process became complex and the defects were seriously increased. Removal rates of each thin films in STi CMP was not equal hence the devices must to be effected, that is, the damage was occured in the device dimension in the case of excessive CMP process and the nitride film was remained on the device dimension in the case of insufficient CMP process than these defects affect the device characteristics. We studied the current sensing method in STI-CMP with the reverse moat pattern.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.501-504
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• 1999

In the shallow trench isolation(STI) chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process, the key issues are the optimized thickness control within- wafer-non-uniformity, and the possible defects such as nitride residue and pad oxide damage. These defects after STI CMP process were discussed to accomplish its optimum process condition. To understand its optimum process condition, overall STI related processes including reverse moat etch, trench etch, STI filling and STI CMP were discussed. It is represented that the nitride residue can be occurred in the condition of high post CMP thickness and low trench depth. In addition there are remaining oxide on the moat surface after reverse moat etch. It means that reverse moat etching process can be the main source of nitride residue. Pad oxide damage can be caused by over-polishing and high trench depth.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.838-843
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• 2002

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process has been widely used to planarize dielectric layers, which can be applied to the integrated circuits for deep sub-micron technology. The reverse moat etch process has been used for the shallow trench isolation(STI)-chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process with conventional low selectivity slurries. Thus, the process became more complex, and the defects were seriously increased. In this paper, we studied the direct STI-CMP process without reverse moat etch step using high selectivity slurry(HSS). As our experimental results show, it was possible to achieve a global planarization without the complicated reverse moat process, the STI-CMP process could be dramatically simplified, and the defect level was reduced. Therefore the throughput, yield, and stability in the ULSI semiconductor device fabrication could be greatly improved.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.3C no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2003

In this paper, we have studied the in-situ end point detection (EPD) for direct chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of shallow trench isolation (STI) structures without the reverse moat etch process. In this case, we applied a high selectivity $1n (HSS) that improves the silicon oxide removal rate and maximizes oxide to nitride selectivity Quite reproducible EPD results were obtained, and the wafer-to-wafer thickness variation was significantly reduced compared with the conventional predetermined polishing time method without EPD. Therefore, it is possible to achieve a global planarization without the complicated reverse moat etch process. As a result, the STI-CMP process can be simplified and improved using the new EPD method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.90-93
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• 2000

In this study, the rise throughput and the stability in fabrication of device can be obtained by applying of CMP process to STI structure in 0.18um semiconductor device. To employ in STI CMP, the reverse moat process has been added thus the process became complex and the defects were seriously increased. Removal rates of each thin films in STI CMP was not equal hence the devices must to be effected, that is, the damage was occured in the device dimension in the case of excessive CMP process and the nitride film was remained on the device dimension in the case of insufficient CMP process than these defects affect the device characteristics. To resolve these problems, the development of slurry for CMP with high removal rate and high selectivity between each thin films was studied then it can be prevent the reasons of many defects by reasons of many defects by simplification of process that directly apply CMP process to STI structure without the reverse moat pattern process.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.175-184
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• 2001

In this study, the improved throughput and stability in device fabrication could be obtained by applying CMP process to STi structue in 0.18 um semiconductor device. To employ the CMP process in STI structure, the Reverse Moat Process used to be added after STI Fill, as a result, the process became more complex and the defect were seriously increased than they had been,. Removal rate of each thin film in STI CMP was not uniform, so, the device must have been affected. That is, in case of excessive CMP, the damage on the active area was occurred, and in the case of insufficient CMP nitride remaining was happened on that area. Both of them deteriorated device characteristics. As a solution to these problems, the development of slurry having high removal rate and high oxide to nitride selectivity has been studied. The process using this slurry afford low defect levels, improved yield, and a simplified process flow. In this study, we evaluated the 'High Selectivity Slurry' to do a global planarization without reverse moat step, and also we evaluated EPD(Eend Point Detection) system with which 'in-situ end point detection' is possible.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.2C no.5
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• pp.262-267
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• 2002

In this paper, we first studied the factors affecting the motor current (MC) signal, which was strongly affected by the systematic hardware noises depending on polishing such as pad conditioning and arm oscillation of platen and recipe, head motor. Next, we studied the end point detection (EPD) for the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process of shallow trench isolation (STI) with reverse moat structure. The MC signal showed a high amplitude peak in the fore part caused by the reverse meal. pattern. We also found that the EP could not be detected properly and reproducibly due to the pad conditioning effect, especially when conventional low selectivity slurry was used. Even when there was no pad conditioning effect, the EPD method could not be applied, since the measured end points were always the same due to the characteristics of the reverse moat structure with an open nitride layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.25-28
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• 2001

Recently, STI(Shallow Trench Isolation) process has attracted attention for high density of semiconductor device as a essential isolation technology. Without applying the conventional complex reverse moat process, CMP(Chemical Mechanical Polishing) has established the Process simplification. However, STI-CMP process have various defects such as nitride residue, torn oxide defect, damage of silicon active region, etc. To solve this problem, in this paper, we discussed to determine the control limit of process, which can entirely remove oxide on nitride from the moat area of high density as reducing the damage of moat area and minimizing dishing effect in the large field area. We, also, evaluated the reliability and reproducibility of STI-CMP process through the optimal process conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.33-36
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• 2001

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process has been widely used to planarize dielectric layers, which can be applied to the integrated circuits for deep sub-micron technology. The rise throughput and the stability in the device fabrication can be obtained by applying of CMP process to STI structure in 0.18$\mu\textrm{m}$ m semiconductor device. The reverse moat process has been added to employ in of each thin films in STI-CMP was not equal, hence the devices must to be effected, that is, the damage was occurred in the device area for the case of excessive CMP process and the nitride film was remained on the device area for the case of insufficient CMP process, and than, these defects affect the device characteristics. Also, we studied the High Selectivity Slurry(HSS) to perform global planarization without reverse moat step.