Prediction of the surface roughness and material removal rate in chemical mechanical polishing of single-crystal SiC via a back-propagation neural network

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a common method for realising the global planarisation and polishing of single-crystal SiC and other semiconductor substrates. The strong oxidant hydroxyl radicals (·OH) generated by the Fenton reaction can effectively oxidise and corrode the SiC substrate, and are thus used to improve the material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (Ra) after polishing of SiC during CMP. Therefore, it is necessary to study the material removal mechanism in detail. Based on the modified Preston equation, the effects of the CMP process parameters on the MRR and Ra after polishing of SiC and their relationship were studied, and a prediction model of the CMP process parameters, MRR, and Ra after polishing was also established based on a back-propagation neural network. The MRR initially increased and then decreased, and the Ra after polishing initially decreased and then increased, with increasing FeSO₄ concentration, H₂O₂ concentration, and pH value. The MRR continuously increased with increasing abrasive particle size, abrasive concentration, polishing pressure, and polishing speed. However, the Ra continuously decreased with increasing abrasive particle size and abrasive concentration, increased with increasing polishing pressure, and initially decreased and then increased with increasing polishing speed. The established prediction model could accurately predict the relationship between the process parameters, MRR and Ra after polishing in CMP (relative prediction error of less than 10%), which could provide a theoretical basis for CMP of SiC.     

一种基于非晶层粘性流动的机械化学抛光模型

通过分析单个微纳米磨粒滑动接触的分子动力学模拟的研究结果，提出了在典型的机械化学抛光（CMP）过程中芯片表面材料的去除应为表面非晶层物质粘性流动所致的新观点。基于这种机理，应用微观接触力学和磨粒粒度分布理论建立了一种新的表征CMP过程材料去除速率的数学模型。模型中引入了一个表征单个磨粒去除芯片表面非晶层能力的比例系数k，k综合反映了磨粒的机械作用、抛光液对芯片表面的化学作用和芯片的材料特性。通过实验验证发现该模型的理论预测值与实验测定值十分吻合。     

A study of material removal amount of sapphire wafer in application of chemical mechanical polishing with different polishing pads

The study mainly explores the fabrication mechanism for fabricating sapphire wafer substrate, by using chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) method. A slurry containing the abrasive particles of SiO₂ is used to contact with the sapphire substrate polish and to produce chemical reaction for removal of sapphire wafer substrate when CMP method is used. The study observes the changes of the removal amount of sapphire wafer substrate when the pattern-free polishing pad and hole-pattern polishing pad are used under different down forces, polishing velocities, abrasive particle sizes and slurry concentrations. Employing regression analysis theory, the study makes improvement of the equation of material removal rate (MRR) to be the material removal height per 30 minutes (MRRh), and develops a compensation parameter C_rv of the error caused by the volume concentration of slurry. The results of experimental analysis show that under a certain down force, if the polishing velocity is greater, the material removal amount will be greater. Generally speaking, the material removal amount of hole-pattern polishing pad is greater than that of pattern-free polishing pad. As to the relationship between abrasive particle size and slurry concentration, when particle size is smaller, the volume concentration of slurry will be higher, and the number of abrasives for polishing wafer will be greater. As a result, a better material removal depth can be acquired. Through the above analytical results, considerable help is offered to the polishing of sapphire wafer.     

Investigation of pad wear in CMP with swing-arm conditioning and uniformity of material removal

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process plays the role of planarizing and smoothing the uneven layers after the material deposition process in the semiconductor industry. In this process, pad conditioning using a diamond disk is inevitable to attain a high material removal rate (MRR) and to ensure the stability of the process. Pad conditioning is performed for providing uniform surface roughness and opening up the glazed surfaces of the polishing pad. However, the uneven pad wear resulting from pad conditioning leads to changes in the uniformity of MRR and productivity of the device. In this study, we investigate the pad wear profile after swing-arm conditioning of the pad, based on measurements performed using a pad measurement system (PMS). Conditioning experiments are conducted with seven cases of profiles of the conditioner's duration time (PCDT). In all the cases, “W”-shaped pad profiles are generated through swing-arm conditioning. It is observed that a concave-shaped PCDT results in the lowest value of maximum pad wear rate. The average depth of pad wear (h_avg) is mainly related to the MRR, and the maximum depth of pad wear (h_max) and the horizontal distance from the wafer center to the position (e) where the maximum pad wear occurs affect the within-wafer non-uniformity (WIWNU). A concave-shaped PCDT results in longer life of the polishing pad by minimizing the variation in pad wear. This paper can provide a technical assistance in selecting the conditioning recipe and improving the lifetime of the polishing pad in the CMP process.     

光助芬顿反应对6H-SiC化学机械抛光的影响

为提高6H-SiC晶片化学机械抛光的材料去除率(MRR)并改善其表面质量,采用光助芬顿反应体系对6H-SiC晶片进行化学机械抛光,研究紫外光功率、抛光液pH值、H2O2质量分数和Fe2+浓度对6H-SiC晶片抛光效果的影响。使用原子力显微镜观察6H-SiC晶片表面质量,采用纳米粒度电位仪测量抛光液中SiO2磨粒的粒径分布及Zeta电位,利用可见分光光度法检测溶液中羟基自由基(·OH)的浓度并通过紫外-可见光谱分析紫外光的作用机制。结果表明:引入紫外光提高了6H-SiC的MRR,增大紫外光功率,MRR也随之增加;随pH值、H2O2质量分数和Fe2+浓度的升高,MRR先增大后减小;pH值影响磨粒间的静电排斥力及磨粒的分散稳定性,从而影响6H-SiC的MRR;与采用芬顿反应体系的抛光液相比,采用光助芬顿反应体系的抛光液中产生的·OH数量较多,说明紫外光能够增加反应体系中·OH的数量,从而促进6H-SiC晶片的表面氧化,提高6H-SiC晶片的MRR,并改善其表面质量。     

Experimental investigation of process parameters for roll-type linear chemical mechanical polishing (Roll-CMP) system

The fabrication processes for electronic components are now demanding a higher degree of planarity for integration and multistacking, with chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) processes replacing conventional etching or mechanical polishing owing to their ability to attain global planarization. As CMP has been applied to more and more fields, new types of CMP machines have been developed. This study introduces a novel roll-type linear CMP (Roll-CMP) process that uses a line-contact material removal mechanism to for the polish flexible substrates, and examines the effect of the process parameters on the material removal rate (MRR) and its nonuniformity (NU). The parameters affecting the Roll-CMP process include down force, roll speed, table feed rate, slurry flow rate, slurry temperature, and the table oscillation length. Increasing the down force, roll speed, slurry flow rate, and slurry temperature resulted in a high average MRR (MRR_avg). Further, the MRR_avg was found to decrease with an increase in the oscillation length because of the effect of the polishing area. A large down force, high roll speed, high table feed rate, and high slurry flow rate were effective for reducing the NU. These results will be helpful for understanding the newly developed Roll-CMP process.     

A micro-contact and wear model for chemical–mechanical polishing of silicon wafers

A micro-contact and wear model for chemical–mechanical polishing (CMP) of silicon wafers is presented in this paper. The model is developed on the basis of elastic–plastic micro-contact mechanics and abrasive wear theory. The synergetic effects of mechanical and chemical actions are formulated into the model. A close-form equation of material removal rate from the wafer surface is derived relating to the material, geometric, chemical and operating parameters in a CMP process. The model is evaluated by comparing the theoretical removal rates with those experimentally determined. Good agreement is obtained for both chemically active and inactive polishing processes. The model reveals some insights into the micro-contact and wear mechanisms of the CMP process. It suggests that the removal rate is sensitive to the particle concentration in the slurry, more sensitive to the applied load and operating speed and most sensitive to the surface hardness and slurry particle size. The model may be used to study the effects of different materials, geometry, slurry chemistry and operating conditions on CMP processes.     

Estimating the mechanical properties of polyurethane-impregnated felt pads

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is an essential process in semiconductor fabrication. The results of CMP process are determined with the selection of consumables and process parameters. The polishing pad transports the slurry to the interface between the polishing pad and wafer and obtains material removal planarity. The mechanical properties of the polishing pad should be studied to analyze the material removal mechanism of CMP because polishing pad deformation is directly related to material removal rate and its uniformity. Various studies have investigated the stress distribution of the CMP process by using the elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the polishing pad. However, these aspects of polishing pad have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we estimated the mechanical properties of commercial polyurethane-impregnated felt pads by comparing the experimentally measured compressive deformation amounts with finite element analysis results.     

Effect of conditioner load on the polishing pad surface during chemical mechanical planarization process

During the Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), the pad conditioning process can affect the pad surface characteristics. Among many CMP process parameters, the improper applied load on the conditioner arm may have adverse effects on the polyurethane pad. In this work, we evaluated the pad surface properties under the various conditioner arm applied during pad conditioning process. The conditioning pads were evaluated for surface topography, surface roughness parameters such as Rt and Rvk and Material removal rate (MRR) and within-wafer non-uniformity after wafer polishing. We observed that, the pad asperities were collapsed in the direction of conditioner rotation and blocks the pad pores applied conditioner load. The Rvk value and MRR were founded to be in relation with 4 > 1 > 7 kgF conditioner load. Hence, this study shows that, 4 kgF applied load by conditioner is most suitable for the pad conditioning during CMP.

     

Modeling the effects of abrasive size, surface oxidizer concentration and binding energy on chemical mechanical polishing at molecular scale

No conclusive results have been proposed for the influence of the abrasive particle size on the material removal during the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). In this paper, a mathematical model as a function of abrasive size and surface oxidizer concentration is presented for CMP. The model is proposed on the basis of the molecular-scale removal theory, probability statistics and micro contact mechanics. The influence in relation to the binding energy of the reacted molecules to the substrate is incorporated into the analysis so as to clarify the disputes on the variable experimental trends on particle size. The predicted results show that the removal rate increases sub-linearly with the abrasive particle size and oxidizer concentration. The model predictions are presented in graphical form and show good agreement with the published experimental data. Furthermore, variations of material removal rate with pressure, pad/wafer relative velocity, and wafer surface hardness, as well as pad characteristics are addressed. Results and analysis may lead further understanding of the microscopic material removal mechanism from molecular-scale perspective.     

CMP过程芯片表面氧化膜生成速度影响因素的分析

根据理论和试验分析,将机械化学抛光(CMP)过程分成两个阶段:化学作用主导阶段和机械作用主导阶段,并从机械作用角度导出CMP过程两个阶段芯片表面材料去除率的数学模型,模型全面地考虑了抛光盘特性参数(弹性模量、硬度、表面粗糙度峰的尺寸分布)、CMP工作参数(压力和抛光速度)、抛光液中磨粒的机械作用和氧化剂种类、氧化剂浓度等化学作用的影响。然后根据这两个阶段的平衡点导出定量描述芯片表面氧化膜生成速度的数学模型。详细分析机械作用因素(磨粒的浓度、磨粒的粒度分布特性)、化学作用因素(抛光液中氧化剂种类、浓度)以及磨粒/芯片/抛光盘的材料特性参数对芯片表面氧化膜生成速度的影响规律。该CMP过程芯片表面氧化膜生成速度定量模型的导出,对进一步深入研究CMP材料去除机理和更加准确地控制CMP过程,具有一定的指导作用。     

A review on the progress towards improvement in surface integrity of Inconel 718 under high pressure and flood cooling conditions

Self-conditioning performance of polishing pad is an important characteristic to influence processing efficiency and service life in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). The slurry can react with the pad surface, which affects its self-conditioning performance in fixed abrasive polishing process. Wear ratio of wafer material removal rate (MRR) and pad wear rate is introduced to evaluate self-conditioning performance of fixed abrasive pad (FAP). To clear the effect of chemical additive on FAP self-conditioning, wear ratio, FAP surface topography, friction coefficient, and acoustic emission signal of polishing process were investigated in fixed abrasive polishing of quartz glass with ferric nitrate, ethylenediamine (EDA), and triethanolamine (TEA) slurry, respectively. Results indicate that TEA slurry can provide excellent self-conditioning of FAP in fixed abrasive polishing of quartz glass. MRR and wear ratio maintain high levels during the whole polishing process. Friction coefficient and acoustic emission signal are more stable than that of the other two chemical additives. An appropriate amount of TEA, which is beneficial to enhance MRR and extends service life of FAP, is added in the polishing slurry to improve FAP self-conditioning in fixed abrasive polishing process.     

Mathematical modeling based on contact mechanism due to elastic and plastic deformation of pad asperities during CMP

Technologies in semiconductor industry have been developed into a three-dimensional multilayer wiring for high integration of devices. Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process is one of the key technologies for achieving multilayer wiring, which enables global planarization. In addition, highly integrated devices can be realized by increasing the depth of focus in the photolithography process. However, in the inter-layer dielectric (ILD) CMP of the transistor, the uppermost oxide layer has the step due to the arrangement of the devices. The ideal material removal mechanism is to gradually remove materials from the top of the step height which allows for global planarization. However, in the CMP of the patterned wafers, simultaneous polishing of the upper and lower layers occurs when the step height reaches a certain height. This means that the polishing is strongly dependent on the structural characteristics of the pattern. Especially, the difference in the material removal rate depending on the pattern density acts as a constraint in terms of device layout. Therefore, it is essential to develop an accurate prediction model of material removal rate as a function of pattern density, size and arrangement. This study aims to define the mathematical planarization model according to contact mode between a polishing pad and patterned wafer. Considering that the real contact area between the actual polishing pad and the wafer is about 1 %, the mathematical model is derived based on the microscopic deformation of the pad asperities, not the macroscopic deformation of the bulk pad. Finally, we describe the verification between the theoretical material removal rate model and step height reduction and the actual CMP results. The root mean square error of the upper layer material rate, the lower material removal rate, and the step height reduction were 24.59 nm/min, 22.03 nm/min and 22.6 nm, respectively. Compared with the previous studies, the new model of this study improved the error by up to 50.9 %.

     

Forming limit diagram of aluminum/copper bi-layered tubes by bulge test

Chemo-mechanical-grinding (CMG) is a hybrid process which integrates chemical reaction and mechanical grinding between abrasives and workpiece into one process. It has been successfully applied into manufacturing process of silicon wafers where both geometric accuracy and surface quality are required. This paper aims to study the potential of CMG process in manufacturing process of single crystal sapphire wafers. The basic material removal mechanism in terms of chemical effect and mechanical effect in CMG process has been analysed based on experiment results of two different kinds of CMG wheels. The experiment results suggest that chromium oxide (Cr₂O₃) performs better than silica (SiO₂) in both material removal rate (MRR) and surface quality. It also reveals that, no matter under dry condition or wet condition, CMG is with potential to achieve excellent surface quality and impressive geometric accuracy of sapphire wafer. Meanwhile, test result by Raman spectrum shows that, by using Cr₂O₃ as abrasive, the sub-surface damage of sapphire wafer is hardly to be detected. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) tells that the sub-surface damage, about less than 50 nm, might remain on the top surface if chemical effect is not sufficient enough to meet the balance with mechanical effect in CMG process.     

表面活性剂在集成电路多层布线CMP工艺中的应用研究

随着集成电路(IC)特征尺寸不断缩小,集成电路多层布线加工精度面临更高的要求,而化学机械抛光(CMP)凭借化学腐蚀和机械磨削的耦合协同作用,成为实现晶圆局部和全局平坦化的唯一可靠技术。抛光液作为CMP工艺中关键要素之一,其主要成分表面活性剂的选择以及含量会严重影响晶圆的表面质量。介绍表面活性剂的特性及其类型,回顾近年来国内外表面活性剂在集成电路多层布线相关材料CMP中的应用及作用机制,归纳总结得出表面活性剂在CMP过程中可以起到缓蚀保护、增强润湿、分散磨料、去除晶圆表面残留污染等多种作用,具有广泛的应用领域。同时,对表面活性剂在CMP中的应用前景进行了展望。     

Synergetic effects of wafer rigidity and retaining-ring parameters on contact stress uniformity in chemical mechanical planarization

Here we use two-dimensional models of fluid film lubrication and contact mechanics to calculate the contact stress and fluid (i.e., slurry) pressure distributions on the wafer?Cpad interface in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). In particular, the effective rigidity of the wafer (determined by the wafer carrier structure), the retaining-ring width and its back pressure are taken to be the design parameters. The purpose is to study the synergetic effects of such parameters on the contact stress uniformity, which directly affects the spatial uniformity of the material removal rate on the wafer surface. Our numerical results indicate that, for a given wafer rigidity, one may choose the retaining-ring width and back pressure to minimize the contact stress non-uniformity (NU). Also, the resulting minimum NU decreases with the effective wafer rigidity, suggesting that it is beneficial to use a soft (e.g., floating-type) wafer carrier. Moreover, for a soft wafer carrier, it is demonstrated that using a multi-zone wafer-back pressure profile is even more effective in reducing NU.     

A mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication model with layered elastic theory for simulation of chemical mechanical polishing

Mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (mixed EHL) model has been successfully used to study phenomena in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. However, in various mixed EHL simulation frameworks, a polishing pad's deformation cannot correctly be described by adopted models for pad deformation such as elastic half-space model and Winkler elastic foundation model. Thus, a more accurate model for pad deformation is needed, since this is the prerequisite for an accurate prediction of contact pressure and material removal rate, which is critical for improvement of polishing quality. In this paper, a layered elastic theory, which is frequently used to calculate flexible pavement response to truck loading, is introduced into the mixed EHL model. It is found that this theory has a similar accuracy to the traditional 3D finite element method for calculating the pad deformation. However, its computational cost is much lower, which is especially important for accurate and efficient simulation of mechanical behavior and material removal rate (MRR) in CMP. In order to highlight benefits of the proposed theory, simulations are carried out based on three different pad deformation models with the mixed EHL model. The pad deformation behavior is found to have a significant influence on the final simulation results, especially the MRR prediction. By comparing the different simulation models, the proposed layer elastic theory is found to be an optimal model for describing the polishing pad deformation behavior in CMP and can provide accurate simulation results on contact pressure distribution and the material removal rate.     

Optimization of the chemical mechanical polishing process for optical silicon substrates

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) experiments are performed to study the effects of four key process factors on the flatness and surface finish of the polished optical silicon substrates and on the material removal rate (MRR). The experimental results and analyses reveal that the pad rotational speed and polish pressure have significant effects on the MRR, the interaction of the polish head rotational speed and slurry supply velocity and the interaction of the polish pressure and polish head rotational speed have significant effects on the flatness, and the pad rotational speed has a significant effect on the surface roughness R _t of the optical silicon substrates polished. The optimal combination of the four factors investigated is a polish pressure of 9,800 Pa, a pad rotational speed of 20 rpm, a polish head rotational speed of 20 rpm, and a slurry supply velocity of 100 ml/min. A confirmation CMP experiment has been carried out using the optimal process parameter setting obtained from the design of experiments analyses. The goal to attain optical silicon substrates with nanometric surface roughness and micrometric flatness by an optimized CMP process with a high MRR simultaneously so as to reduce the polishing time to only 15 min from over 8 h has been achieved.     

Hydrodynamic analysis of chemical mechanical polishing process

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 abrasive containing slurry. The CMP process is a combination of chemical dissolution and mechanical action. The mechanical action of CMP involves hydrodynamic lubrication. The liquid slurry is trapped between the work piece (wafer) and pad (tooling) forming a lubricating film. For the first step to understand the mechanism of the CMP process, hydrodynamic analysis is done with a semiconductor wafer. Slurry pressure distribution, resultant forces and moments acting on the wafer are calculated in typical conditions of the wafer polishing, and then nominal clearance of the slurry film, roll and pitch angles at the steady state are obtained.     

Polishing tool with phyllotactic distributed through-holes for photochemically combined mechanical polishing of N-type gallium nitride wafers

In this work, we further developed the photochemically combined mechanical polishing (PCMP) method for finishing N-type gallium nitride (GaN) wafers. A core improvement is to design a novel polishing tool with phyllotactic distributed through-holes, through which the wafer surface underneath through-holes can receive ultraviolet (UV)-light for the photochemical oxidation, while the rest parts undergo mechanical polishing. During PCMP, the co-rotation of the wafer and polishing tool allows the wafer surface to undergo the uniform and high-frequency conversion of oxidation and polishing. Based on the designed PCMP system and apparatus, the fundamental issues arising from such an alternate processing mode, which is different from the parallel mode of conventional chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), were investigated. Results show that the technical features of PCMP depend on the nature of the photochemical oxidation of wafers themselves if the mechanical polishing procedure can sufficiently remove oxides in time. The material removal rate (MRR) is inversely proportional to the dislocation density of wafers. Under acidic conditions, the oxidation proceeds by the GaN monocrystal step orientation, allowing PCMP to clear surface/subsurface damages (SSDs) and to prepare step-terrace structures on the wafer surface. When the polishing solution (pH = 1.5) includes 0.1 M K₂S₂O₈ oxidants and 10 wt% SiO₂ abrasives, the surface roughness Sa attains 0.21 nm in 10 × 10 μm², and the MRR reaches 275.3 nm/h. The present study shows that the phyllotactic distributed through-hole array structure designed for polishing tools offers rich possibilities for the innovation of polishing technologies combining with various oxidation approaches.