• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.441-442
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• 2002

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a manufacturing process that uses controlled wear to planarize dielectric and metallic layers on silicon wafers. CMP experiments revealed that a sub-ambient film pressure developed at the wafer/pad interface. Additionally, dishing occurs in CMP processes when the copper-in-trench lines are removed at a rate higher than the barrier layer. In order to study dishing across a stationary wafer during polishing, dishing maps were created. Since dishing is a function of the total contact pressure resulting from the applied load and the fluid pressure, the hydrodynamic pressure model was refined and used in an existing model to study copper dishing. Density maps, highlighting varying levels of dishing across the wafer face at different radial positions, were developed. This work will present the results.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.361-367
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• 2001

Recently, Chemical Mechanical Polishing(CMP) has become a leading planarization technique as a method for silicon wafer planarization that can meet the more stringent lithographic requirement of planarity for the future submicron device manufacturing. The SOI(Silicon On Insulator) wafer has received considerable attention as bulk-alternative wafer to improve the performance of semiconductor devices. In this paper, the objective of study is to investigate Material Removal Rate(MRR) and surface micro-roughness effects of slurry and pad in the CMP process. When particle size of slurry is increased, Material Removal rate increase. Surface micro-roughness is greater influenced by pad than by particle size of slurry. As a result of AM measurement, surface micro-roughness was improved from 27 $\AA$ Rms to 0.64 $\AA$Rms.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.218-223
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• 2001

The chemical-mechanical polishing process was carried out for 2"-dia. sapphire wafer grown by horizontalBridgman method on the urethane lapping pad with the silica sol. The polished wafer shows the full-width at halfmaximum of 200~400 arcsec in double-crystal X-ray diffraction, indicating that the slicing, grinding and lapping processes before the polishing process affected the crystalline structural property of the wafer surface by the mechanical residual stress. For the inclusion of surface treatments after chemical-mechanical polishing such as the thermal annealing at the temperature of $1,200^{\circ}C$for 4 hrs. and chemical etching, the crystalline quality was sigdicantly enhanced with the reduced full-width at half maximum up to 8.3 arcsec.arcsec.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.358-363
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• 2010

The polishing pad is important element for polishing characteristic such as material removal rate(MRR) and within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) in the chemical mechanical planarization(CMP). The result of the viscoelasticity measurement shows that 1st elastic modulus is increased and 2nd elastic modulus is decreased when the top pad is thickened. The finite element analysis(FEA) was conducted to predict characteristic of polishing behavior according to the pad thickness. The result of polishing experiment was similar with the FEA, and it shows that the 1st elastic modulus affects instantaneous deformation of pad related to MRR. And the 2nd elastic modulus has an effect on WIWNU due to the viscoelasticity deformation of pad.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.2 s.297
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• pp.98-102
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• 2007

The stability of slurry and removal rate during recycling of colloidal silica slurry was evaluated in silicon wafer polishing. The particle size distribution, pH, and zeta potential were measured to investigate the stability of colloidal silica. Large particles appeared as recycling time increased while average size of slurry did not change. Large particles were identified by EDS(energy dispersive spectrometer) as foreign substances from pad or abraded silicon flakes during polishing. As the recycling time increased, pH of slurry decreased and removal rate of silicon reduced but zeta potential decreased inversely. Hence, it could be mentioned that decrease of removal rate is related to consumption of $OH^-$ ions during recycling. Attention should be given to the control of pH of slurry during polishing.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.9
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• pp.438-443
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• 2001

In the shallow trench isolation(STI)-chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process, the key issues are the optimized thickness control, within-wafer-non-uniformity, and the possible defects such as pad oxide damage and nitride residue. The defect like nitride residue and silicon (or pad oxide) damage after STI-CMP process were discussed to accomplish its optimum process condition. To understand its optimum process condition, overall STI related processes including reverse moat etch, trench etch, STI fill and STI-CMP were discussed. Consequently, we could conclude that law trench depth and high CMP thickness can cause nitride residue, and high trench depth and over-polishing can cause silicon damage.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.3C no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2003

In this paper, we have studied the in-situ end point detection (EPD) for direct chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of shallow trench isolation (STI) structures without the reverse moat etch process. In this case, we applied a high selectivity $1n (HSS) that improves the silicon oxide removal rate and maximizes oxide to nitride selectivity Quite reproducible EPD results were obtained, and the wafer-to-wafer thickness variation was significantly reduced compared with the conventional predetermined polishing time method without EPD. Therefore, it is possible to achieve a global planarization without the complicated reverse moat etch process. As a result, the STI-CMP process can be simplified and improved using the new EPD method.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.521-526
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• 2005

Within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) improves as the stiffness of pad decrease. We designed the pad groove to study of pad stiffness on WIWNU in Chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) and measured the pad stiffness according to groove width. The groove influences effective pad stiffness although original mechanical properties of pad are unchanged by grooving. Also, it affects the flow of slurry that has an effect on the lubrication regime and polishing results. An Increase of the apparent contact area of pad by groove width results in decrease of effective pad stiffness. WIWNU and profile of removal tate improved as effective pad stiffness decreased. Because grooving the pad reduce its effective stiffness and it makes slurry distribution to be uniform. Futhermore, it ensures that pad conforms to wafer-scale flatness variability. By grooving the top pad, it is possible to reduce its stiffness and hence reduce WIWNU and edge effect.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

In this paper, the air flow induced by the rotating flat disk is numerically investigated in a hope to better understand the air flow structures inside the wax spin coater for a silicon wafer polishing station. Due to the complex inner geometry of actual spin coater such as the casing around the rotating ceramic block and servo motor, recirculation of air flow is inevitably found on the coating target if the internal space of spin coater is closed at the bottom and it could be the possible source of contamination on the wax coating. By numerical flow simulation, we found that it is necessary to install the air vent at the bottom and to apply the sufficient air suction in order to control the path of air flow and to eliminate the air recirculation zone above the spinning surface of coating target.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2016

This study investigates the characteristics of the sapphire wafer chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. The material removal rate is one of the most important factors since it has a significant impact on the production efficiency of a sapphire wafer. Some of the factors affecting the material removal rate include the pressure, platen speed and slurry. Among the factors affecting the CMP process, we analyzed the trends in the material removal rate and surface roughness, which are mechanical factors corresponding to both the pressure and platen speed, were analyzed. We also analyzed the increase in the material removal rate, which is proportional to the pressure and platen speed, using the Preston equation. In the experiment, after polishing a 4-inch sapphire wafer with increasing pressure and platen speed, we confirmed the material removal rate via thickness measurements. Further, surface roughness measurements of the sapphire wafer were performed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) equipment. Using the measurement results, we analyzed the trends in the surface roughness with the increase in material removal rate. In addition, the experimental results, confirmed that the material removal rate increases in proportion to the pressure and platen speed. However, the results showed no association between the material removal rate and surface roughness. The surface roughness after the CMP process showed a largely consistent trend. This study demonstrates the possibility to improve the production efficiency of sapphire wafer while maintaining stable quality via mechanical factors associated with the CMP process.