• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2004.07a
• /
• pp.20-23
• /
• 2004

As the integrated circuit device shrinks to the smaller dimension, the chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process was required for the global planarization of inter-metal dielectric(IMD) layer with free-defect. However, as the IMD layer gets thinner, micro-scratches are becoming as major defects. Chemical-Mechanical polishing(CMP) of conductors is a key process in Damascene patterning of advanced interconnect structure. The effect of alternative commercial slurries pads, and post-CMP cleaning alternatives are discuss, with removal rate, scratch dentisty, surface roughness, dishing, erosion and particulate density used as performance metrics. Electroplated copper deposition is a mature process from a historical point of view, but a very young process from a CMP perspective. While copper electro deposition has been used and studied for decades, its application to Cu damascene wafer processing is only now gaining complete acceptance in the semiconductor industry. The polishing mechanism of Cu-CMP process has been reported as the repeated process of passive layer formation by oxidizer and abrasion action by slurry abrasives. however it is important to understand the effect of oxidizer on copper passivation layer in order to obtain higher removal rate and non-uniformity during Cu-CMP process. In this paper, we investigated the effects of oxidizer on Cu-CMP process regarding the additional volume of oxidizer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2003.07a
• /
• pp.370-373
• /
• 2003

As the integrated circuit device shrinks to the smaller dimension, the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process was required for the global planarization of inter-metal dielectric(IMD) layer with free-defect. However, as the IMD layer gets thinner, micro-scratches are becoming as major defects. Chemical-Mechanical Planarization(CMP) of conductors is a key process in Damascene patterning of advanced interconnect structure. The effect of alternative commerical slurries pads, and post-CMP cleaning alternatives are discuess, with removal rate, scratch dentisty, surface roughness, dishing, erosion and particulate density used as performance metrics. Electroplated copper depostion is a mature process from a historical point of view, but a very young process from a CMP persperspective. While copper electrodepostion has been used and stuidied for dacades, its application to Cu damascene wafer processing is only now ganing complete accptance in the semiconductor industry. The polishing mechanism of Cu CMP process has been reported as the repeated process of passive layer formation by oxidizer and abrasion action by slurry abrasives. however it is important to understand the effect of oxidizer on copper pasivation layer in order to obtain higher removal rate and non-uniformity during Cu-CMP process. In this paper, we investigated the effects of oxidizer on Cu-CMP process regarding the additional volume of oxidizer.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.426-430
• /
• 2005

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is an essential process in the production of integrated circuits containing copper interconnects. The effect of alanine in reactive slurries representative of those that might be used in copper CMP was studied with the aim of improving selectivity between copper(Cu) film and tantalum-nitride(TaN) film. We investigated the pH effect of nano-colloidal silica slurry containing alanine through the chemical mechanical polishing test for the 8(inch) blanket wafers as deposited Cu and TaN film, respectively. The copper and tantalum-nitride removal rate decreased with the increase of pH and reaches the neutral at pH 7, then, with the further increase of pH to alkaline, the removal rate rise to increase soddenly. It was found that alkaline slurry has a higher removal rate than acidic and neutral slurries for copper film, but the removal rate of tantalum-nitride does not change much. These tests indicated that alanine may improve the CMP process by controlling the selectivity between Cu and TaN film.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.156-161
• /
• 2004

We investigated the effects of oxidizer additive on the performance of Cu-CMP process using commonly used tungsten slurry. In order to compare the removal rate and non-uniformity as a function of oxidizer contents, we used alumina-based tungsten slurry and copper blanket wafers deposited by DC sputtering method. According to the CMP removal rates and particle size distribution, and the microstructures of surface layer by SEM image as a function or oxidizer contents were greatly influenced by the slurry chemical composition of oxidizers. The difference in removal rate and roughness of copper surface are believed to cause by modification in the mechanical behavior of $Al_2$O$_3$abrasive particles in CMP slurry.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.546-546
• /
• 2008

Copper (Cu) Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has been an essential process for Cu wifing of DRAM and NAND flash memory beyond 45nm. Copper has been employed as ideal material for interconnect and metal line due to the low resistivity and high resistant to electro-migration. Damascene process is currently used in conjunction with CMP in the fabrication of multi-level copper interconnects for advanced logic and memory devices. Cu CMP involves removal of material by the combination of chemical and mechanical action. Chemicals in slurry aid in material removal by modifying the surface film while abrasion between the particles, pad, and the modified film facilitates mechanical removal. In our research, we emphasized on the role of chemical effect of slurry on Cu CMP, especially on the effect of amine functional group on removal rate selectivity between Cu and Tantalum-nitride (TaN) film. We investigated the two different kinds of complexing agent both with amine functional group. On the one hand, Polyacrylamide as a polymer affected the stability of abrasive, viscosity of slurry and the corrosion current of copper film especially at high concentration. At higher concentration, the aggregation of abrasive particles was suppressed by the steric effect of PAM, thus showed higher fraction of small particle distribution. It also showed a fluctuation behavior of the viscosity of slurry at high shear rate due to transformation of polymer chain. Also, because of forming thick passivation layer on the surface of Cu film, the diffusion of oxidant to the Cu surface was inhibited; therefore, the corrosion current with 0.7wt% PAM was smaller than that without PAM. the polishing rate of Cu film slightly increased up to 0.3wt%, then decreased with increasing of PAM concentration. On the contrary, the polishing rate of TaN film was strongly suppressed and saturated with increasing of PAM concentration at 0.3wt%. We also studied the electrostatic interaction between abrasive particle and Cu/TaN film with different PAM concentration. On the other hand, amino-methyl-propanol (AMP) as a single molecule does not affect the stability, rheological and corrosion behavior of the slurry as the polymer PAM. The polishing behavior of TaN film and selectivity with AMP appeared the similar trend to the slurry with PAM. The polishing behavior of Cu film with AMP, however, was quite different with that of PAM. We assume this difference was originated from different compactness of surface passivation layer on the Cu film under the same concentration due to the different molecular weight of PAM and AMP.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.77-77
• /
• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.565-566
• /
• 2006

Slurry used in metal chemical mechanical polishing normally consists of an oxidizer, a complexing agent, a corrosion inhibitor and an abrasive. This paper investigates effects of citric acid as a complexing agent for Cu CMP with $H_2O_2$ as an oxidizer. In order to study chemical effects of a citric acid, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were performed on Cu sample after Cu etching test. XPS results reveal that CuO, $Cu(OH)_2$ layer decrease but Cu/$Cu_2O$ layer increase on Cu sample surface. To investigate nanomechanical properties of Cu sample surface, nanoindentation was performed on Cu sample. Results of nanoindentation indicate wear resistance of Cu Surface decrease. According to decrease of wear resistance on Cu surface, removal rate increases from $285\;{\AA}/min$ to $8645\;{\AA}/min$ in Cu CMP.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2005.06a
• /
• pp.434-437
• /
• 2005

Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) has become an essential step in the overall semiconductor wafer fabrication technology. In general, CMP is a surface planarization method in which a silicon wafer is rotated against a polishing pad in the presence of slurry under pressure. The polishing pad, generally a polyurethane-based material, consists of polymeric foam cell walls, which aid in removal of the reaction products at the wafer interface. It has been found that the material removal rate of any polishing pad decreases due to the so-called 'pad glazing' after several wafer lots have been processed. Therefore, the pad restoration and conditioning has become essential in CMP processes to keep the urethane polishing pad at the proper friction coefficient and to allow effective slurry transport to the wafer surface. Diamond pad conditioner employs a single layer of brazed bonded diamond crystals. Due to the corrosive nature of the polishing slurry required in low pH metal CMP such as copper, it is essential to minimize the possibility of chemical interaction between very low pH slurry (pH <2) and the bond alloy. In this paper, we report an exceptional protective coated conditioner for in-situ pad conditioning in low pH Cu CMP process. The protective Cr-coated conditioner has been tested in slurry with pH levels as low as 1.5 without bond degradation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2007.06a
• /
• pp.82-82
• /
• 2007

The chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process has been widely used to obtain global planarization of multilevel interconnection process for ultra large scale. integrated circuit applications. Especially, the application of copper CMP has become an integral part of several semiconductor device and materials manufacturers. However, the low-k materials at 65nm and below device structures because of fragile property, requires low down-pressure mechanical polishing for maintaining the structural integrity of under layer during their fabrication. In this paper, we studied electrochemical mechanical polishing (ECMP) as a new planarization technology that uses electrolyte chemistry instead of abrasive slurry for copper CMP process. The current-voltage (I-V) curves were employed we investigated that how this chemical affect the process of voltage induced material removal in ECMP of Copper. This work was supported by grant No. (R01-2006-000-11275-0) from the Basic Research Program of the Korea Science.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.537-537
• /
• 2008

Copper (Cu) has been widely used for interconnection structure in intergrated circuits because of its properties such as a low resistance and high resistance to electromigration compared with aluminuim. Damascene processing for the interconnection structure utilizes 2-steps chemical mechanical polishing(CMP). After polishing, the removal of abrasive particles on the surfaces becomes as important as the polishing process. In the paper, buffing process for the removal of colloidal silica from polished Cu wafer was proposed and demonstrated.