• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.9
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• pp.438-443
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• 2001

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 pad oxide damage and nitride residue. The defect like nitride residue and silicon (or pad oxide) damage 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 fill and STI-CMP were discussed. Consequently, we could conclude that law trench depth and high CMP thickness can cause nitride residue, and high trench depth and over-polishing can cause silicon damage.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.181-184
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• 2001

Chemical Mechanical Polishing(CMP) of Shallow Trench Isolation(STD structure in 0.18 m semiconductor device fabrication is studied. CMP process is applied for the STI structure with and without reverse moat pattern and End Point Detection (EPD) method is tested. To optimize the transistor properties related metal 1 parameters. we studied the correlation between CMP thickness of STI using high selectivity slurry. DOE of gate etch recipe, and 1st metal DC values. Remaining thickness of STI CMP is proportional to the thickness of gate-etch process and this can affect to gate profile. As CMP thickness increased. the N-poly foot is deteriorated. and the P-Poly Noth is getting better. If CD (Critical Dimension) value is fixed at some point,, all IDSN/P values are in inverse proportional to CMP thickness by reason of so called Profile Effect. Weve found out this phenomenon in all around DOE conditions of Gate etch process and we also could understand that it would not have any correlation effects between VT and CMP thickness in the range of POE 120 sec conditions. As CMP thickness increased by $100\AA$. 3.2 $u\AA$ of IDSN is getting better in base 1 condition. In POE 50% condition. 1.7 $u\AA$ is improved. and 0.7 $u\AA$ is improved in step 2 condition. Wed like to set the control target of CD (critical dimension) in gate etch process which can affect Idsat, VT property versus STI topology decided by CMP thickness. We also would like to decide optimized thickness target of STI CMP throughout property comparison between conventional STI CMP with reverse moat process and newly introduced STI CMP using high selectivity slurry. And we studied the process conditions to reduce Gate Profile Skew of which source known as STI topology by evaluation of gate etch recipe versus STI CMP thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.181-184
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• 2001

Chemical Mechanical Polishing(CMP) of Shallow Trench Isolation(STI) structure in 0.18 m semiconductor device fabrication is studied. CMP process is applied for the STI structure with and without reverse moat pattern and End Point Detection (EPD) method is tested. To optimize the transistor properties related metal 1 parameters, we studied the correlation between CMP thickness of STI using high selectivity slurry, DOE of gate etch recipe, and 1st metal DC values. Remaining thickness of STI CMP is proportional to the thickness of gate-etch process and this can affect to gate profile. As CMP thickness increased, the N-poly foot is deteriorated, and the P-Poly Noth is getting better. If CD (Critical Dimension) value is fixed at some point, all IDSN/P values are in inverse proportional to CMP thickness by reason of so called Profile Effect. Weve found out this phenomenon in all around DOE conditions of Gate etch process and we also could understand that it would not have any correlation effects between VT and CMP thickness in the range of POE 120 sec conditions. As CMP thickness increased by 100 ${\AA}$, 3.2 u${\AA}$ of IDSN is getting better in base 1 condition. In POE 50% condition, 1.7 u${\AA}$ is improved, and 0.7 u${\AA}$ is improved in step 2 condition. Wed like to set the control target of CD (critical dimension) in gate etch process which can affect Idsat, VT property versus STI topology decided by CMP thickness. We also would like to decide optimized thickness target of STI CMP throughout property comparison between conventional STI CMP with reverse moat process and newly introduced STI CMP using high selectivity slurry. And we studied the process conditions to reduce Gate Profile Skew of which source known as STI topology by evaluation of gate etch recipe versus STI CMP thickness.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.5-9
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• 2002

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has become the preferred planarization method for multilevel interconnect technology due to its ability to achieve a high degree of feature level planarity. Especially, to achieve the higher density and greater performance, shallow trench isolation (STI)-CMP process has been attracted attention for multilevel interconnection as an essential isolation technology. Also, it was possible to apply the direct STI-CMP process without reverse moat etch step using high selectivity slurry (HSS). In this work, we determined the process margin with optimized process conditions to apply HSS STI-CMP process. Then, we evaluated the reliability and reproducibility of STI-CMP process through the optimal process conditions. The wafer-to-wafer thickness variation and day-by-day reproducibility of STI-CMP process after repeatable tests were investigated. Our experimental results show, quite acceptable and reproducible CMP results with a wafer-to-wafer thickness variation within 400$\AA$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.05c
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• pp.149-153
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• 2003

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) technology for global planarization of multi-level inter-connection structure has been widely studied for the next generation devices. CMP process has been paid attention to planarized pre-metal dielectric (PMD), inter-layer dielectric (ILD) interconnections. Expecially, shallow trench isolation (STI) used to CMP process on essential. Recently, the direct STI-CMP process without the conventional complex reverse moat etch process has established by using slurry additive with the high selectivity between $SiO_2$ and $Si_3N_4$ films for the purpose of process simplification and n-situ end point detection(EPD). However, STI-CMP process has various defects such as nitride residue, tom oxide and damage of silicon active region. To solve these problems, in this paper, we studied the planarization characteristics using a high selectivity slurry(HSS). 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 HSS STI-CMP process.