• 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.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.308-311
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference of the wafer nanotopography impact on the oxide-film thickness variation between the STI CMP using ceria slurry and STI CMP using fumed silica slurry. The nanotopography impact on the oxide-film thickness variation after STI CMP using ceria slurry is 2.8 times higher than that after STI CMP using fumed silica slurry. It is attributed that the STI CMP using ceria slurry follows non-Prestonian polishing behavior while that using fumed silica slurry follows Prestonian polishing behavior.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.45-49
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• 2004

We examined large particles and filter size effects of Central Chemical Supplying (CCS) system for STI-CMP on Light Point Defects (LPDs) after polishing. As manufacturing process recently gets thinner below 0.1 um line width, it is very important to keep down post-CMP micro-scratch and LPDs in case of STI-CMP. Therefore, we must control the size distribution of large particles in a slurry. With optimization of final filter size, CCS system is one of the solutions for this issue. The oxide and nitride CMP tests were accomplished using nano-ceria slurries made by ourselves. The number of large particles in a slurry and the number of LPDs on the wafer surface after CMP were reduced with decrease of the final filter size. Oxide removal rates slightly changed according to the final filter size, showing the good performance of self-made nano ceria slurries.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.441-446
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• 2003

The chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is now widely employed in the ultra large scale integrated (ULSI) semiconductor fabrication. Especially, shallow trench isolation (STI) has become a key isolation scheme for sub-0.13/0.10${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ CMOS technology. The most important issues of STI-CMP is to decrease the various defects such as nitride residue, dishing, and tom oxide. To solve these problems, in this paper, we studied the planarization characteristics using slurry additive with the high selectivity between $SiO_2$ and $Si_3$$N_4$ films for the purpose of process simplification and in-situ end point detection. As our experimental results, it was possible to achieve a global planarization and STI-CMP process could be dramatically simplified. Also, we estimated the reliability through the repeated tests with the optimized process conditions in order to identify the reproducibility of STI-CMP process.

• 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.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2001

STI(shallow trench isolation)-CMP(chemical mechanical polishing) process have been substituted for LOCOS(local oxidation of silicon) process to obtain global planarization in the below sub-0.5㎛ technology. However TI-CMP process, especially TI-CMP with RIE(reactive ion etching) etch back process, has some kinds of defect like nitride residue, torn oxide defect, etc. In this paper, we studied how to reduced torn oxide defects after STI-CMP with RIE etch back processed. Although torn oxide defects which can occur on trench area is not deep and not severe, torn oxide defects on moat area is not deep and not severe, torn oxide defects on moat area is sometimes very deep and makes the yield loss. Thus, we did test on pattern wafers which go through trench process, APECVD process, and RIE etch back process by using an IPEC 472 polisher, IC1000/SUVA4 PAD and KOH base slurry to reduce the number of torn defects and to study what is the origin of torn oxide defects.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1175-1180
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• 2022

STI has been studied a lot as a process technology for wide area planarization according to miniaturization and high integration of semiconductor devices. In this study, as methods for improving the STI profile, wet etching of pad oxide using hydrofluorine solution and dry etching of O₂+CF₄ after STI dry etching were proposed. This process technology showed improvement in profile imbalance and leakage current between patterns according to device density compared to the conventional method. In addition, as a result of measuring the HLD thickness after CMP for a device having the same STI depth and HLD deposition, the measured value was different depending on the device density. It was confirmed that this was due to the difference in the thickness of the nitride film according to the device density after CMP and the selectivity of the slurry.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.272-278
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• 2002

Recently, STI(Shallow Trench Isolation) process has attracted attention for high density of semiconductor device as a essential isolation technology. In this paper, the effect of pattern density, trench width and selectivity of slurry on dishing in STI CMP process was investigated by using specially designed isolation pattern. As trench width increased, the dishing tends to increase. At $20{\mu}m$ pattern size, the dishing was decreased with increasing pattern density Low selectivity slurry shows less dishing at over $160{\mu}m$ trench width, whereas high selectivity slurry shows less dishing at below $160{\mu}m$ trench width.

• 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 $110{\AA}$.