• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2007.06a
• /
• pp.79-80
• /
• 2007

Copper has been used as an interconnect material in the fabrication of semiconductor devices, because of its higher electrical conductivity and superior electro-migration resistance. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) technique is required to planarize the overburden Cu film in an interconnect process. Various problems such as dishing, erosion, and delamination are caused by the high pressure and chemical effects in the Cu CMP process. But these problems have to be solved for the fabrication of the next generation semiconductor devices. Therefore, new process which is electro-chemical mechanical planarization/polishing (ECMP) or electro-chemical mechanical planarization was introduced to solve the. technical difficulties and problems in CMP process. In the ECMP process, Cu ions are dissolved electrochemically by the applying an anodic potential energy on the Cu surface in an electrolyte. And then, Cu complex layer are mechanically removed by the mechanical effects between pad and abrasive. This paper focuses on the manufacturing of ECMP system and its process. ECMP equipment which has better performance and stability was manufactured for the planarization process.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.346-351
• /
• 2020

The removal characteristics of copper (Cu) from electrochemical surface by voltage-activated reaction were reviewed to assess the applicability of electrochemical-mechanical polishing (ECMP) process in three types of electrolytes, such as HNO₃, KNO₃ and NaNO₃. Electrochemical surface conditions such as active, passive, transient and trans-passive states were monitored from its current-voltage (I-V) characteristic curves obtained by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) method. In addition, the oxidation and reduction process of the Cu surface by repetitive input of positive and negative voltages were evaluated from the I-V curve obtained using the cyclic voltammetry (CV) method. Finally, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyses were used to observe the structural surface states of a Cu electrode. The electrochemical analyses proposed in this study will help to accurately control the material removal rate (MRR) from the actual ECMP process because they are a good methodology for predicting optimal electrochemical process parameters such as current density, operating voltage, and operating time before performing the ECMP process.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.79-85
• /
• 2015

RC delay is a critical issue for achieving high performance of ULSI devices. In order to minimize the RC delay time, we uses the CMP process to introduce high-conductivity Cu and low-k materials on the damascene. The low-k materials are generally soft and fragile, resulting in structure collapse during the conventional high-pressure CMP process. One troubleshooting method is electrochemical mechanical polishing (ECMP) which has the advantages of high removal rate, and low polishing pressure, resulting in a well-polished surface because of high removal rate, low polishing pressure, and well-polished surface, due to the electrochemical acceleration of the copper dissolution. This study analyzes an electrochemical state (active, passive, transpassive state) on a potentiodynamic curve using a three-electrode cell consisting of a working electrode (WE), counter electrode (CE), and reference electrode (RE) in a potentiostat to verify an electrochemical removal mechanism. This study also tries to find optimum conditions for ECMP through experimentation. Furthermore, during the low-pressure ECMP process, we investigate the effect of current density on surface roughness and removal rate through anodic oxidation, dissolution, and reaction with a chelating agent. In addition, according to the Faraday’s law, as the current density increases, the amount of oxidized and dissolved copper increases. Finally, we confirm that the surface roughness improves with polishing time, and the current decreases in this process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.53-53
• /
• 2007

반도체 소자의 고집적화, 미세화 화로 인해 반도체의 동작속도를 증가시키기 위하여 Cu를 이용한 금속배선이 주목받게 되었으나, 높은 압력으로 인한 보은 Cu 영역에서 과잉 디슁 현상과 에로젼을 유도하고 반도체 웨이퍼위의 low-k 물질에 손상을 줌에 따라 메탈라인 브리징과 단락을 초래할 있어, Cu의 단락인 islands를 남김으로서 표면 결항을 제거하지 못한다는 단점을 가지고 있었다. 그래서 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위하여 기존의 CMP에 전기화학을 결합시킴으로서 낮은 하력에서의 Cu평탄화를 달성할 수 있는 ECMP (electrochemical mechanical polishing)기술이 필요하게 되었다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 전기화학적 기계적 연마(ECMP)작용을 위해, I-V 특성 곡선을 이용하여 패시베이션 막의 active, passive, transient, trans-passive영역의 전기화학적 특성을 비교 분석하였으며, Cu막의 표면 형상을 알아보기 위해 scanning electron microscopy (SEM) 측정과 energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)와 X-ray Diffraction (XRD) 분석을 통해 금속 화학적 조성을 조사하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.57-58
• /
• 2006

Chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) of Cu has used currently in semiconductor process for multilevel metallization system. This process requires the application of a considerable down-pressure to the sample in the polishing, because porous low-k films used in the Cu-multilevel interconnects of 65nm technology node are often damaged by mechanical process. Also, it make possible to reduce scratches and contaminations of wafer. Electrochemical mechanical planarization (ECMP) is an emerging extension of CMP. In this study, the electrochemical mechanical polisher was manufactured. And the static and dynamic potentiodynamic curve of Cu were measured in KOH based electrolyte and then the suitable potential was found.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.523-524
• /
• 2007

This paper discusses the planarization process of thick copper film structure used for power supply device. Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) has been used to remove a metal film and obtain a surface planarization which is essential for the semiconductor devices. For the thick metal removal, however, the long process time and other problems such as dishing, delamination and metal layer peeling are being issued, Compared to the traditional CMP process, Electro-chemical mechanical planarization(ECMP) is suggested to solve these problems. The two-step process composed of the ECMP and the conventional CMP is used for this experiment. The first step is the removal of several tens ${\mu}m$ of bulk copper on patterned wafer with ECMP process. The second step is the removal of residual copper layer aimed at a surface planarization. For more objective comparison, the traditional CMP was also performed. As an experimental result, total process time and process defects are extremely reduced by the two-step process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.486-486
• /
• 2009

In this paper, the current-voltage (I-V) curves, such as linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV), were employed to evaluate the effect of electrolyte concentration on the electrochemical reaction trend. From the I-V curve, the electrochemical states of active, passive, transient and trans-passive could be characterized. And then, we investigated that how this chemical affect the process of voltage-induced material removal in electrochemical mechanical polishing (ECMP) of Copper. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy EDS) analyses were used to observe the surface profile. Finally, we monitored the oxidation and reduction process of the Cu surface by the repetition of anodic and cathodic potential from cyclic voltammetry (CV) method in acid- and alkali-based electrolyte. From these analyses, it was important to understand the electrochemical mechanisms of the ECMP technology.

• 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.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.10 no.10
• /
• pp.4787-4807
• /
• 2016

Although the dense interconnection datacenter networks (DCNs) (e.g. FatTree) provide multiple paths and high bisection bandwidth for each server pair, the single-path TCP (SPT) and ECMP which are widely used currently neither achieve high bandwidth utilization nor have good load balancing. Due to only one available transmission path, SPT cannot make full use of all available bandwidth, while ECMP's random hashing results in many collisions. In this paper, we present OFPT, an OpenFlow based Parallel Transport framework, which integrates precise routing and scheduling for better load balancing and higher network throughput. By adopting OpenFlow based centralized control mechanism, OFPT computes the optimal path and bandwidth provision for each flow according to the global network view. To guarantee high throughput, OFPT dynamically schedules flows with Seamless Flow Migration Mechanism (SFMM), which can avoid packet loss in flow rerouting. Finally, we test OFPT on Mininet and implement it in a real testbed. The experimental results show that the average network throughput in OFPT is up to 97.5% of bisection bandwidth, which is higher than ECMP by 36%. Besides, OFPT decreases the average flow completion time (AFCT) and achieves better scalability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.164-164
• /
• 2008

금속배선공정에서 높은 전도율과 재료의 값이 싸다는 이유로 최근 Cu를 사용하였으나, 디바이스의 구조적 특성을 유지하기 위해 높은 압력으로 인한 새로운 다공성 막(low-k)의 파괴와, 디싱과 에로젼 현상으로 인한 문제점이 발생하게 되었다. 이러한 문제점을 해결하고자, 본 논문에서는 Cu 표면에 Passivation layer를 형성 및 제거하는 개념으로 공정시 연마제를 사용하지 않으며, 낮은 압력조건에서 공정을 수행하기 위해, 전해질의 농도 변화에 따른 Liner sweep voltammetry 법을 사용하여 전압활성화에 의한 전기화학적 반응이 Cu전극에 어떤 영향을 미치는지 연구하였으며, 표면 조성을 알아보기 위하여 Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) 분석을 하였고, Cu disk의 결정성과 배향성 관찰을 위해 X-Ray diffraction (XRD)로 금속 표면을 비교하여 실험 결과로 얻어진 데이터를 통하여 ECMP 공정에 적합한 전해액 선정과 농도를 선택하였다.