• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.378-383
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• 2004

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 oxidant on the polishing selectivity of W/Ti/TiN layer was investigated. The alumina(A1$_2$O$_3$)-based slurry with $H_2O$$_2$ as the oxidizer was used for CMP applications. As an experimental result, for the case of 5 wt％ oxidizer added, the removal rates were improved and polishing selectivity of 1.4:1 was obtained. It was also found that the CMP characteristics of W and Ti metal layer including surface roughness were strongly dependent on the amounts of $H_2O$$_2$ oxidizer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.38-45
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• 2005

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) has been widely accepted for the planarization of multi-layer structures in semiconductor fabrication. But a variety of defects such as abrasive contamination, scratch, dishing, erosion and corrosion are occurred during CMP. Especially, dishing and erosion defects increase the metal resistance because they decrease the interconnect section area, and ultimately reduce the lift time of the semiconductor. Due to this reason dishing and erosion must be prohibited. The pattern density and size in chip have a significant influence on dishing and erosion occurred by over-polishing. The fixed abrasive pad(FAP) was applied and tested to reduce dishing and erosion in this paper. The abrasive concentration decrease of FAP results in advanced pattern selectivity which can lead the uniform removal in chip and declining over-polishing. Consequently, reduced dishing and erosion was observed in CMP of tungsten pattern wafer with proposed FAP and chemicals.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.321-326
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• 2005

Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process is essential technology to be applied to manufacturing the dielectric layer and metal line in semiconductor devices. It has been known that overpolishing in CMP depends on pattern selectivity as a function of density and pitch, and use of fixed abrasive pad(FAP) is one method which can improve the pattern selectivity. Thus, dishing & erosion defects can be reduced. This paper introduces the manufacturing technique of FAP using hydrophilic polymers with swelling characteristic in water and explains the self-conditioning phenomenon. When applied to tungsten blanket wafers, the FAP resulted in appropriate performance in point of uniformity, material selectivity and roughness. Especially, reduced dishing and erosion was observed in CMP of tungsten pattern wafer with the proposed FAP.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.05c
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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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.167-171
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• 1996

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has become widely accepted for the planarization of multi-interconnect structures in semiconductor manufacturing. However, perfect planarization is not so easily achieved because it depends on the pattern sensitivity, the large number of controllable process parameters, and the absence of a reliable process model, etc. In this paper, we realized the planarization of deposited oxide layers followed by metal (W) polishing as a replacement for tungsten etchback process for via formation. Atomic force microscope (AFM) is used for the evaluation of pattern topography during CMP. As a result, AFM evaluation is very attractive compared to conventional methods for the measurement of planarity. Moreover, it will contribute to analyze planarization characteristics and establish CMP model.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.42-42
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.366-367
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• 2006

In general, HF chemistry lifts off the particles during scrubbing after polishing and effectively removes particles. It is sometimes impossible to apply HF chemistry on W plug due to the degradation of electrical characteristics of a device. In this paper, a post W CMP cleaning process is proposed to remove residue particles without applying HF chemistry. After W CMP, recessed plugs are created, therefore they easily trap slurry particles during CMP process. These particles in recessed plug are not easy to remove by brush scrubbing when $NH_4OH$ chemistry is used for the cleaning because the brush surface can not reach the recessed area of plugs. Buffing with oxide slurry was followed by W CMP due to its high selectivity to W. The buffing polishes only oxide slightly which creates higher plug profiles than surrounding oxide. Higher profiles make the brush contact much more effectively and result in a similar particle removal efficiency even in $NH_4OH$ cleaning to that in HF brush scrubbing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.12-16
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• 2005

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is one of the most useful methods for improving the surface roughness of films. The effects of CMP on the surface morphology of WO$_3$ films prepared by RF sputtering system were investigated in this paper. A removal rate of films increased, and the uniformity performance of surface decreased with the addition of an oxidizer to the tungsten slurry. Non-uniformity performance of surface was superior as its value was below 5 % when oxidizers of 5.0 vol% and 2.5 vol%, respectively, were added to the tungsten slurry. The optimized oxidizer concentration, reflected both the improved roughness values and hillock-free surface with the good uniformity performance, was 5.0 vol% as an atomic force microscopy(AFM) analysis of thin film topographies. Our CMP results will be a useful reference for advanced technology of thin films for gas sensor applications in the near future.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.394-399
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• 2006

The polishing performance and the relationships of electrochemistry depending upon oxidizers and additives in the tungsten CMP slurry used in semiconductor industry were investigated. Hydrogen peroxide, ferric nitrate and potassium iodate were used as oxidizers and they showed different oxidation reactions on tungsten film depending on the kind of oxidizers and pH of slurry. The differences influenced the polishing performance. Etching reaction was predominated in the hydrogen peroxide. However, passivation reaction was prevailed in ferric nitrate and potassium iodate. TMAH and KOH raised the potential energy and removal rate of tungsten, and improved a dispersion characteristic of slurry by increasing absolute value of zeta potential. Addition of 100 ppm of poly(acrylic acid) of M.W. 250,000 improved dispersion ability.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.568-574
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• 2000

We have been optimized tungsten(W) plug CMP(chemical mechanical polishing) characteristics using two different kinds of component of slurry and two different kinds of pad which have different hardness. The comparison of oxide film roughness on around W plug after polishing has been carried out. And W plug recess for consumable sets and dishing effect at dense area according to the rate of over-polishing has been investigated. Also the analysis of residue on surface after cleaning have been performed. As a experimental result we have concluded that the consumable set of slurry A and hard pad was good for W plug CMP process. After decreasing the rate of chemical reaction of silica slurry and adding two step buffering we could reduce the expanding of W plug void however we are still recognizing to need a more development for those kinds of CMP consumables.