• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2008년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.9
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• pp.546-546
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• 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.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제35권6호
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• pp.323-329
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• 2019

Sapphire is currently used as a substrate material for blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The market for sapphire substrates has expanded rapidly as the use of LEDs has extended into various industries. However, sapphire is classified as one of the most difficult materials to machine due to its hardness and brittleness. Recently, a lap-grinding process has been developed to combine the lapping and diamond mechanical polishing (DMP) steps in a single process. This paper studies, the effect of wafer surface roughness on the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process by pressure and abrasive concentration in the lap-grinding process of a sapphire wafer. In this experiment, the surface roughness of a sapphire wafer is measured after lap-grinding by varying the pressure and abrasive concentration of the slurry. CMP is carried out under pressure conditions of 4.27 psi, a plate rotation speed of 103 rpm, head rotation speed of 97 rpm, and slurry flow rate of 170 ml/min. The abrasive concentration of the CMP slurry was 20wt, implying that the higher the surface roughness after lapgrinding, the higher the material removal rate (MRR) in the CMP. This is likely due to the real contact area and actual contact pressure between the rough wafer and polishing pad during the CMP. In addition, wafers with low surface roughness after lap-grinding show lower surface roughness values in CMP processes than wafers with high surface roughness values; therefore, further research is needed to obtain sufficient surface roughness before performing CMP processes.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2003년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.4 No.1
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• pp.88-91
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• 2003

Tungsten is widely used as a plug for the multi-level interconnection structures. However, due to the poor adhesive properties of tungsten (W) on $SiO_2$ layer, the Ti/TiN barrier layer is usually deposited onto $SiO_2$ for increasing adhesion ability with W film. Generally, for the W-CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) process, the passivation layer on the tungsten surface during CMP plays an important role. In this paper, the effect of oxidants controlling the polishing selectivity of W/Ti/TiN layer were investigated. The alumina ($Al_2O_3$) abrasive containing slurry with $H_2O_2$ as the oxidizer, was studied. As our preliminary experimental results, very low removal rates were observed for the case of no-oxidant slurry. This low removal rate is only due to the mechanical abrasive force. However, for Ti and TiN with $H_2O_2$ oxidizer, different removal rate was observed. The removal mechanism of Ti during CMP is mainly due to mechanical abrasive, whereas for TiN, it is due to the formation of metastable soluble peroxide complex.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2003년도 춘계학술대회 논문집 센서 박막재료 반도체 세라믹
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• pp.33-36
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• 2003

Tungsten is widely used as a plug for the multi-level interconnection structures. However, due to the poor adhesive properties of tungsten (W) on $SiO_2$ layer, the Ti/TiN barrier layer is usually deposited onto $SiO_2$ for increasing adhesion ability with W film. Generally, for the W-CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) process, the passivation layer on the tungsten surface during CMP plays an important role. In this paper, the effect of oxidants controlling the polishing selectivity of W/Ti/TiN layer were investigated. The alumina $(Al_2O_3)$ abrasive containing slurry with 5 % $H_2O_2$ as the oxidizer, was studied. As our preliminary experimental results, very low removal rates were observed for the case of no-oxidant slurry. This low removal rate is only due to the mechanical abrasive force. However, for Ti and TiN with 5 % $H_2O_2$ oxidizer, different removal rate was observed. The removal mechanism of Ti during CMP is mainly due to mechanical abrasive, whereas for TiN, it is due to the formation of metastable soluble peroxide complex.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2003년도 춘계학술대회 논문집 센서 박막재료 반도체 세라믹
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• pp.45-48
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• 2003

The polishing mechanism of W-CMP process has been reported as the repeated process of passive layer formation by oxidizer and abrasion action by slurry abrasives. Thus, it is important to understand the effect of oxidizer on tungsten passivation layer in order to obtain higher removal rate (RR) and very low non-uniformity (NU%) during W-CMP process. In this paper, we investigated the effects of oxidizer on W-CMP process with three different kinds of oxidizers, such as $H_2O_2$, $Fe(NO_3)_3$, and $KIO_3$. In order to compare the removal rate and non-uniformity of three oxidizers, we used alumina-based slurry of pH 4. According to the CMP tests, three oxidizers showed different removal mechanism on tungsten surface. Also, the microstructures of surface layer by AFM image were greatly influenced by the slurry chemical, composition of oxidizers. The difference in removal rate and roughness of tungsten surface are believed to caused by modification in the mechanical behavior of $Al_2O_3$ abrasive particles in CMP slurry. Our stabilized slurries can be used a guideline and promising method for improved W-CMP process.

• 한국기계가공학회지
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.17-24
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• 2003

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) has been applied for planarization of topography after patterning process in semiconductor fabrication process. Tungsten CMP is necessary to build up interconnects of semiconductor device. But the tungsten dishing and the oxide erosion defects appear at end-point during tungsten CMP. It has been known that the generation of dishing and erosion is based on the over-polishing time, which is determined by pattern selectivity. Fixed abrasive pad takes advantage of decreasing the defects resulting flam reducing pattern selectivity because of the lower abrasive concentration. The manufacturing technique of fixed abrasive pad using hydrophilic polymers is introduced in this paper. For application to tungsten CMP, chemicals composed of oxidizer, catalyst, and acid were developed. In comparison of the general pad and slurry for tungsten CMP, the fixed abrasive pad and the chemicals resulted in appropriate performance in point of removal rate, uniformity, material selectivity and roughness.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제18권12호
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• pp.192-199
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• 2001

Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) has emerged as the planarization technique of choice in both front-end and back-end integrated circuit manufacturing. Conventional CMP process utilize a polyurethane polishing pad and liquid chemical slurry containing abrasive particles. There hale been serious problems in CMP in terms of repeatability and deflects in patterned wafers. Especial1y, dishing and erosion defects increase the resistance because they decrease the interconnection section area, and ultimately reduce the lifetime of the semiconductor. Methods to reduce dishing & erosion have recently been interface hardness of the pad, optimization of the pattern structure as dummy patterns. Dishing & erosion are initially generated an uneven pressure distribution in the materials. These defects are accelerated by free abrasives and chemical etching. Therefore, it is known that dishing & erosion can be reduced by minimizing the abrasive concentration. Minimizing the abrasive concentration by using CeO$_2$is the best solution for reducing dishing & erosion and for removal rate. This paper introduce dishing & erosion generating mechanism and a method fur developing a semi-rigid abrasive pad to minimize dishing & erosion during CMP.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.179-184
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• 2000

Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) refers to a material removal process done by rubbing a work piece against a polishing pad under load in the presence of chemically active and abrasive containing slurry. CMP process is a combination of chemical dissolution and mechanical action. The mechanical action of CMP involves hydrodynamic behavior. The liquid slurry is trapped between the work piece and pad forming a hydrodynamic film. For the first step to understand material removal mechanism of the CMP process, the hydrodynamic analysis is done with semiconductor wafer. Three-dimensional Reynolds equation is applied to get pressure distribution of the slurry film. Shear stress distributions on the wafer surface are also analyzed

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• 제34권6호
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• pp.226-234
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• 2018

Copper chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) has become a key process in integrated circuit (IC) technology. The results of copper CMP depend not only on the mechanical abrasion, but also on the slurry chemistry. The slurry used for Cu CMP is known to have greater chemical reactivity than mechanical material removal. The Cu CMP slurry is composed of abrasive particles, an oxidizing agent, a complexing agent, and a corrosion inhibitor. Citric acid can be used as the complexing agent in Cu CMP slurries, and is widely used for post-CMP cleaning. Although many studies have investigated the effect of citric acid on Cu CMP, no studies have yet been conducted on the interfacial friction characteristics and step height reduction in CMP patterns. In this study, the effect of citric acid on the friction characteristics and step height reduction in a copper wafer with varying pattern densities during CMP are investigated. The prepared slurry consists of citric acid ($C_6H_8O_7$), hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$), and colloidal silica. The friction force is found to depend on the concentration of citric acid in the copper CMP slurry. The step heights of the patterns decrease rapidly with decreasing citric acid concentration in the copper CMP slurry. The step height of the copper pattern decreases more slowly in high-density regions than in low-density regions.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2004년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.5 No.2
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• pp.1312-1315
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• 2004

Chemical Mechanical Polishing is referred to as a three body tribological system, because it includes two solids in relative motion and the slurry. On the assumption that the abrasives between the pad and the wafer could be a major reason of not only the friction force but also material removal during polishing. The friction force generated by the abrasives was inspected with the change of abrasive size and concentration in this paper. The variation of coefficient of friction with abrasive concentration and size could result from the condition of contact and load balance between wafer and abrasives carried by pad asperity. The simulation was performed in this paper and compared with the result of experiment. The material removal rate also estimated with abrasive concentration and size increasement.