• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.304-307
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• 2013

Reverse engineering of semiconductor devices utilizes delayering processes, in order to identify how the interconnection lines are stacked over transistor gates. Cu metal has been used in recent fabrication technologies, and de-processes becomes more difficult with the shrinking device dimensions. In this article, reverse engineering technologies to reveal the Cu interconnection lines and Cu via-plugs embedded in dielectric layers are investigated. Stacked dielectric layers are removed by $CF_4$ plasma etching, then the exposed planar Cu metal lines and via-plugs are selectively delineated by wet chemical solution, instead of the commonly used plasma-based dry etch. As a result, we have been successful in extracting the layouts of multiple layers within a system IC, and this technique can be applicable to other logic IC, analog IC, and CMOS IC, etc.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.61-66
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• 2012

The double-layered Ti/Si barrier metal is demonstrated for the source/drain Cu interconnections in oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors (TFTs). The transmission electromicroscopy and ion mass spectroscopy analyses revealed that the double-layered barrier structure suppresses the interfacial reaction and the interdiffusion at the interface after thermal annealing at $350^{\circ}C$. The underlying Si layer was found to be very useful for the etch stopper during wet etching for the Cu/Ti layers. The oxide TFTs with a double-layered Ti/Si barrier metal possess excellent TFT characteristics. It is concluded that the present barrier structure facilitates the back-channel-etch-type TFT process in the mass production line, where the four- or five-mask process is used.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.26-31
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• 2012

Three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) technology has become increasingly important due to the demand for high system performance and functionality. We have evaluated the effect of Buffered oxide etch (BOE) on the interfacial bonding strength of Cu-Cu pattern direct bonding. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of Cu surface revealed that Cu surface oxide layer was partially removed by BOE 2min. Two 8-inch Cu pattern wafers were bonded at $400^{\circ}C$ via the thermo-compression method. The interfacial adhesion energy of Cu-Cu bonding was quantitatively measured by the four-point bending method. After BOE 2min wet etching, the measured interfacial adhesion energies of pattern density for 0.06, 0.09, and 0.23 were $4.52J/m^2$, $5.06J/m^2$ and $3.42J/m^2$, respectively, which were lower than $5J/m^2$. Therefore, the effective removal of Cu surface oxide is critical to have reliable bonding quality of Cu pattern direct bonds.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2012

Three-dimensional integrated circuit(3D IC) technology has become increasingly important due to the demand for high system performance and functionality. In this work, BOE and HF wet etching of Cu line surfaces after CMP were conducted for Cu-Cu pattern direct bonding. Step height of Cu and $SiO_2$ as well as Cu dishing after Cu CMP were analyzed by the 3D-Profiler. Step height increased and Cu dishing decreased with increasing BOE and HF wet etching times. XPS analysis of Cu surface revealed that Cu surface oxide layer was partially removed by BOE and HF wet etching treatment. BOE treatment showed not only the effective $SiO_2$ etching but also reduced dishing and Cu surface oxide rather than HF treatment, which can be used as an meaningful process data for reliable Cu-Cu pattern bonding characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.325-331
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• 2007

In this study, the inter-metal dielectric material of FSG was changed by low-k material in $0.13{\mu}m$ foundry-compatible technology (FCT) device process based on fluorinated silicate glass (FSG). Black diamond (BD) was used as a low-k material with a dielectric constant of 2.95 for optimization and yield-improvement of the low-k based device process. For yield-improvement in low-k based device process, some problems such as photoresist (PR) poisoning, damage of low-k in etch/ash/cleaning process, and chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) delamination must be solved. The PR poisoning was not observed in BD based device. The pressure in CMP process decreased to 2.8 psi to remove the CMP delamination for Cu-CMP and USG-CMP. $H_2O$ ashing process was selected instead of $O_2$ ashing process due to the lowest condition of low-k damage. NE14 cleaning after ashing process lot the removal of organic residues in vias and trenches was employed for wet process instead of dilute HF (DHF) process. The similar-state of SRAM yield was obtained in Cu/low-k process compared with the conventional $0.13{\mu}m$ FCT device by the optimization of these process conditions.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.288-290
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• 1997

Pulsed laser ablation has been used to fabricate superconducting $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x}$(YBCO) thin films on MgO substrates. The epitaxial YBCO thin films were grown at $750^{\circ}C$ and oxygen partial pressure of 200 mTorr. The electrical property and the characteristics of the YBCO thin films have been studied by R-T measurement. scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). A microstrip line resonator has been fabricated using YBCO superconducting thin films by photolithography and wet-etch process. The resonator has linear microstrip line separated by a gap of 0.278 mm. We observed a fundamental resonance peak at the frequency of 10.007 GHz.