• 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.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.55-59
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• 2024

Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PE-CVD) is a widely used technology in semiconductor manufacturing for thin film deposition. The implementation of wafer guide rings in PE-CVD processes is crucial for enhancing efficiency and product quality by ensuring uniform deposition around wafer edges and reducing particle generation. On the other hand, to prevent overall temperature non-uniformity and degradation of thin film quality within the chamber, it is essential to consider various parameters comprehensively. In this study, after applying the wafer guide rings, temperature variations and fluid flow changes were simulated. Additionally, by simulating the temperature and flow changes when applied to the PE-CVD chamber, this paper discusses the importance of optimizing variables within the entire chamber.

• 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.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.61-66
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• 2016

Total thickness variation (TTV), BOW, and surface roughness are essential characteristics for high quality sapphire substrates. Many researchers have attempted to increase removal rate by controlling the key process parameters like pressure and velocity owing to the high cost of consumables in sapphire chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). In case of the pressure approach, increased pressure owing to higher deviation of pressure over the wafer leads to significant degradation of the TTV. In this study, the authors focused on reducing TTV under the high-pressure conditions. When the production equipment polishes multiple wafers attached on a carrier, higher loads seem to be concentrated around the leading edge of the head; this occurs because of frictional force generated by the combination of table rotation and the height of the gimbal of the polishing head. We believe the skewed pressure distribution during polishing to be the main reason of within-wafer non-uniformity (WIWNU). The insertion of a hub ring between the polishing head and substrate carrier helped reduce the pressure deviation. Adjusting the location of the hub ring enables tuning of the pressure distribution. The results indicated that the position of the hub ring strongly affected the removal profile, which confirmed that the position of the hub ring changes the pressure distribution. Furthermore, we analyzed the deformation of the head via finite element method (FEM) to verify the pressure non-uniformity over the contact area Based on experiment and FEM results, we determined the optimal position of hub ring for achieving uniform polishing of the substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.433-434
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• 2002

Chemical mechanical polishing refers to a process by which silicon and partially-processed integrated circuits (IC's) built on silicon substrates are polished to produce planar surfaces for the continued manufacturing of IC's. Chemical mechanical polishing is done by pressing the silicon wafer, face down, onto a rotating platen that is covered by a rough polyurethane pad. During rotation, the pad is flooded with a slurry that contains nanoscale particles. The pad deforms and the roughness of the surface entrains the slurry into the interface. The asperities contact the wafer and the surface is polished in a three-body abrasion process. The contact of the wafer with the 'soft' pad produces a unique elastohydrodynamic situation in which a suction force is imposed at the interface. This added force is non-uniform and can be on the order of the applied pressure on the wafer. We have measured the magnitude and spatial distribution of this suction force. This force will be described within the context of a model of the sliding of hard surfaces on soft substrates.

• 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 KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.922-927
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• 2003

In this paper, slurry fluid motion, abrasive particle motion, and roles of groove patterns on the pads are numerically investigated in the 2D and 3D geometries. The simulation results are analyzed in terms of experimental removal rate and WIWNU (within wafer non-uniformity) for ILD (inter level dielectric) CMP process. Numerical investigations reveal that the grooves in the pad behave as uniform distributor of abrasive particles and enhance the removal rate by increasing shear stress. Higher removal rate and desirable uniformity are numerically and experimentally observed at the pad with grooves. Numerical analysis is very well matched with experimental results and helpful for understanding polishing mechanism and local physics.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.29 no.4 s.235
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• pp.435-440
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• 2005

In this paper, slurry fluid motion, abrasive particle motion, and roles of groove patterns on the pads are numerically investigated in the 2D and 3D geometries. The simulation results are analyzed in terms of experimental removal rate and WIWNU (Within Wafer Non-Uniformity) for ILD (Inter Level Dielectric) CMP process. Numerical investigations reveal that the grooves in the pad behave as uniform distributor of abrasive particles and enhance the removal rate by increasing shear stress. Higher removal rate and desirable uniformity are numerically and experimentally observed at the pad with grooves. Numerical analysis is very well matched with experimental results and helpful fur understanding polishing mechanism and local physics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.192-193
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• 2006

A 16Mb ITIC FeRAM device was fabricated with BLT capacitors. The average value of the switchable 2 polarization obtained m the 32k-array (unit capacitor size: 068 ${mu}m^2$) capacitors was about 16 ${\mu}C/cm^2$ at 3V and the uniformity within an 8-inch wafer was about 2.8%. But a lot of cells were failed randomly during the measuring the bit-line signal of each cell. It was revealed that the Grain size and orientation of the BLT thin film were severely non-uniform. Therefore, the uniformity of the grain size and orientation was improved by changing the process conditions of post heat treatment. The temperature of nucleation step was the very effective on varying the microstructure of the BLT thin film. The optimized temperature of the nucleation step was $560^{\circ}C$.