• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07a
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• pp.252-255
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• 2004

반도체는 high integrated, high speed, low power를 위하여 design 뿐만 아니라 재료 측면에서도 많은 변화를 가져오고 있으며, RC delay time을 줄이기 위하여 Al 배선보다 비저항이 낮은 Cu와 low-k material 적용이 그 대표적인 예이다. 그러나, Cu 배선의 경우 dry etching이 어려우므로, 기존의 공정으로는 그 한계를 가지므로 damascene 또는 dual damascene 공정이 소개, 적용되고 있다. Damascene 공정은 절연막에 photo와 RIE 공정을 이용하여 trench를 형성시킨 후 electrochemical plating 공정을 이용하여 trench에 Cu를 filling 시킨다. 이후 CMP 공정을 이용하여 절연막 위의 Cu와 barrier material을 제거함으로서 Cu 배선을 형성하게 된다. Dual damascene 공정은 trench와 via를 동시에 형성시키는 기술로 현재 대부분의 Cu 배선 공정에 적용되고 있다. Cu CMP는 기존의 metal CMP와 마찬가지로 oxidizer를 이용한 Cu film의 화학반응과 연마 입자의 기계가공이 기본 메커니즘이다. Cu CMP에서 backside pressure 영향이 uniformity에 미치는 영향을 살펴보았으며, electrochemical plating 공정에서 발생하는 hump가 CMP 결과에 미치는 영향과 dishing 결과를 통하여 그 영향을 평가하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.93-94
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• 2005

Cu metallization using electrochemical plating(ECP) has played an important role in back end of line(BEOL) interconnect formation. In this work, we studied the optimized copper thickness using Bottom-up Gap-fill in Cu ECP, which is closely related with the pattern dependencies in Cu ECP and Cu dual damascene process at 0.13 ${\mu}m$ technology node. In order to select an optimized Cu ECP thickness, we examined Cu ECP bulge, Cu CMP dishing and electrical properties of via hole and line trench over dual damascene patterned wafers split into different ECP Cu thickness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.123-124
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• 2005

We investigated the effect of a Ta/TaN Cu diffusion barrier existence on the reliability and the electrical performance of Cu dual-damascene interconnects. A high EM performance in Cu dual-damascene structure was observed the BCV(barrier contact via) interconnect structure to remain Ta/TaN barrier layer. Via resistance was decreased DCV interconnect structure by bottomless process. This structure considers that DCV interconnect structure has lower activation energy and higher current density than BCV interconnect structure. The EM failures by BCV via structure were formed at via hole, but DCV via structure was formed EM fail at the D2 line. In order to improve the EM characteristic of DCV interconnect structure by bottomless process, after Ta/TaN diffusion barrier layer in via bottom is removed by Ar+ resputtering process, it is desirable that Ta thickness is thickly made by Ta flash process.

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

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

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.95-100
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• 2012

In this study, a novel Cu composite sheet with embedded high electric conduction path was developed as another alternative for the interconnect materials possessing high electrical conductivity as well as high strength. The Cu composite sheet was fabricated by forming Ag conduction paths not within the interior but on the surface of a high strength Cu substrate by damascene electroplating process. As a result, the electrical conductivity increased by 40% thanks to mesh type Ag conduction paths, while the ultimate tensile strength decreased by 20%. The interfacial fracture resistance of Cu composite sheet prepared by damascene electroplating increased by above 50 times compared to Cu composite sheet by conventional electroplating. For feasibility test for practical application, a leadframe for LED module was manufactured by a progressive blanking and piercing processes, and the blanked surface profile was evaluated as a function of the volume fraction of Ag conduction paths. As Ag conduction path became finer, pressing formability improved.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.225-228
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• 2005

In this work, we studied the optimized copper thickness in Cu ECP (Electrochemical Plating). In order to select an optimized Cu ECP thickness, we examined Cu ECP bulge (bump, hump or over-plating amount), Cu CMP dishing and electrical properties of via hole and line trench over dual damascene patterned wafers split into different ECP Cu thickness. In the aspect of bump and dishing, the bulge increased according as target plating thickness decreased. Dishing of edge was larger than center of wafer. Also in case of electrical property, metal line resistance distribution became broad gradually according as Cu ECP thickness decreased. In conclusion, at least $20\%$ reduced Cu ECP thickness from current baseline; $0.8\;{\mu}m$ and $1.0\;{\mu}m$ are suitable to be adopted as newly optimized Cu ECP thickness for local and intermediate layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.83-84
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• 2007

Damascene 공정을 이용하여 80nm급의 trench 패턴 내에 구리 배선 형성을 위해 무전해 구리 도금법을 이용하였다. 화학 반응으로 진행되는 무전해 도금법에 의한 구리이온의 초미세 패턴 내 환원 과정에 구리 이온의 물질 전달과정이 구리 도금층의 표면 특성과 superconformality에 미치는 영향을 살펴보았다. 회전 전극에 고정된 칩의 회전 속도가 증가함에 따라 구리 도금층의 비저항이 감소하고, trench 내 균일 도금성이 향상되는 것으로 나타났다.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.111-115
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• 2014

Effect of dynamic electric fields on dielectric breakdown behavior in Cu damascene interconnects was investigated. Among the DC, unipolar, and bipolar pulse conditions, the longest dielectric lifetime is observed under the bipolar condition because backward Cu ion drift occurs when the direction of electric field is changed by 180 degrees and Cu contamination is prohibited as a results. Under the unipolar pulse condition, the dielectric lifetime increases as pulse frequency increases and it exceed the lifetime under DC condition. It suggests that the intrinsic breakdown of dielectrics significantly affect the dielectric breakdown in addition to Cu contamination. As the unipolar pulse width decreases, dielectric bond breakdown is more difficult to occur.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.37-41
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• 2012

The wafer level stacking with Cu-to-Cu bonding becomes an important technology for high density DRAM stacking, high performance logic stacking, or heterogeneous chip stacking. Cu CMP becomes one of key processes to be developed for optimized Cu bonding process. For the ultra low-k dielectrics used in the advanced logic applications, Ti barrier has been preferred due to its good compatibility with porous ultra low-K dielectrics. But since Ti is electrochemically reactive to Cu CMP slurries, it leads to a new challenge to Cu CMP. In this study Ti barrier/Cu interconnection structure has been investigated for the wafer level 3D integration. Cu CMP wafers have been fabricated by a damascene process and two types of slurry were compared. The slurry selectivity to $SiO_2$ and Ti and removal rate were measured. The effect of metal line width and metal density were evaluated.