Search

A program CALTPP (CALculation of ThermoPhysical Properties) is developed in order to provide various thermophysical properties such as diffusion coefficient, interfacial energy, thermal conductivity, viscosity and molar volume mainly as function of temperature and composition. These thermophysical properties are very important inputs for microstructure simulations and mechanical property predictions. The general structure of CALTPP is briefly described, and the CALPHAD-type models for the description of these thermophysical properties are presented. The CALTPP program contains the input module, calculation and/or optimization modules and output module. A few case studies including (a) the calculation of diffusion coefficient and optimization of atomic mobility, (b) the calculation of solid/liquid, coherent solid/solid and liquid/liquid interfacial energies, (c) the calculation of thermal conductivity, (d) the calculation of viscosity, and (e) the establishment of molar volume database in binary and ternary alloys are demonstrated to show the features of CALTPP. It is expected that CALTPP will be an effective contribution in both scientific research and education.

The thermal stability of organic functional materials affects the performance and lifetime of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). We have developed a thermally stable inverted OLEDs (IOLEDs) by employing silver (Ag) doped into 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (Bphen) as an n-type doped electron injection layer (EIL). We found that the formation of Ag complexes by coordination reaction could enhance the thermal stability and produce an asymmetric diffraction pattern based on an analysis of grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering. Interestingly, with the annealing temperature increasing to 100 °C, the electrical properties of electron-only cells show differentiated phenomenon that the current density based on Ag dopant remains basically unchanged, which is opposite to Cs2CO3 dopant. In addition, at the high temperature of 100 °C, the IOLEDs with Cs2CO3 doped Bphen as an EIL was damaged completely, while the Ag dopant-based devices still maintained good photoelectrical characteristics. Finally, we have demonstrated that the optimized IOLEDs achieved a 40.3% enhancement in current efficiency compared to the conventional device. This work provides a new strategy to increase the thermal stability and performance for the application of IOLEDs operated under high temperature.

The replacement metal gate (RMG) defectivity performance control is very challenging in high-k metal gate (HKMG) chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). In this study, three major defect types, including fall-on particles, micro-scratch and corrosion have been investigated. The research studied the effects of polishing pad, pressure, rotating speed, flow rate and post-CMP cleaning on the three kinds of defect, which finally eliminated the defects and achieved good surface morphology. This study will provide an important reference value for the future research of aluminum metal gate CMP.

Beyond 45 nm, due to the superior CMP performance requirements with the metal gate of aluminum in the advanced CMOS process, a novel alkaline slurry for an aluminum gate CMP with poly-amine alkali slurry is investigated. The aluminum gate CMP under alkaline conditions has two steps:stock polishing and fine polishing. A controllable removal rate, the uniformity of aluminum gate and low corrosion are the key challenges for the alkaline polishing slurry of the aluminum gate CMP. This work utilizes the complexation-soluble function of FA/O Ⅱ and the preference adsorption mechanism of FA/O Ⅰ nonionic surfactant to improve the uniformity of the surface chemistry function with the electrochemical corrosion research, such as OCP-TIME curves, Tafel curves and AC impedance. The result is that the stock polishing slurry (with SiO2 abrasive) contains 1 wt.% H2O2 ,0.5 wt.% FA/O Ⅱ and 1.0 wt.% FA/O Ⅰ nonionic surfactant. For a fine polishing process, 1.5 wt.% H2O2 , 0.4 wt.% FA/O Ⅱ and 2.0 wt.% FA/O Ⅰ nonionic surfactant are added. The polishing experiments show that the removal rates are 3000±50 A/min and 1600±60 A/min, respectively. The surface roughnesses are 2.05±0.128 nm and 1.59±0.081 nm, respectively. A combination of the functions of FA/O Ⅱ and FA/O Ⅰ nonionic surfactant obtains a controllable removal rate and a better surface roughness in alkaline solution.

TSV (through silicon via) is an emerging technology, which can realize micromation compared with the conventional packaging and extend Moore's law. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is one of the most important steps in the process of TSV manufacture, and it is an enabling technology to extend Moore's law in the past two decades. Low pressure, low abrasive and low pH value are the main requirements for copper interconnection. In this paper, the effect of different kinds of TSV slurry with FA/O II or FA/O IV type chelating agent on CMP are studied. All kinds of slurry used in this study are alkaline with no added inhibitors. From the experiment results, it can be seen that the copper removal rate and surface roughness achieved by using the FA/O IV type chelating agent with a low pH value is superior to using the FA/O II type chelating agent.

After the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process, the copper surface is contaminated by a mass of particles (e.g.silica) and organic residues (e.g.benzotriazole), which could do great harm to the integrated circuit, so post-CMP cleaning is essential.In particular, benzotriazole (BTA) forms a layer of Cu-BTA film with copper on the surface, which leads to a hydrophobic surface of copper.So an effective cleaning solution is needed to remove BTA from the copper surface.In this work, a new compound cleaning solution is designed to solve two major problems caused by BTA:one is removing BTA and the other is copper surface corrosion that is caused by the cleaning solution.The cleaning solution is formed of alkaline chelating agent (FA/O II type), which is used to remove BTA, and a surfactant (FA/O I type), which is used as a corrosion inhibitor.BTA removal is characterized by contact angle measurements and electrochemical techniques.The inhibiting corrosion ability of the surfactant is also characterized by electrochemical techniques.The proposed compound cleaning solution shows advantages in removing BTA without corroding the copper surface.

The effect of a novel alkaline TSV (through-silicon-via) slurry with guanidine hydrochloride (GH) on CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) was investigated. The novel alkaline TSV slurry was free of any inhibitors. During the polishing process, the guanidine hydrochloride serves as an effective surface-complexing agent for TSV CMP applications, the removal rate of barrier (Ti) can be chemically controlled through tuned selectivity with respect to the removal rate of copper and dielectric, which is helpful to modifying the dishing and gaining an excellent topography performance in TSV manufacturing. In this paper, we mainly studied the working mechanism of the components of slurry and the skillful application guanidine hydrochloride in the TSV slurry.

Controllable removal rate selectivity with various films (Cu, Ta, SiO2) is a challenging job in barrier CMP. H2O2 as an oxidizer and benzotriazole (BTA) as an inhibitor is considered to be an effective method in barrier CMP. Slurries that contain hydrogen peroxide have a very short shelf life because H2O2 is unstable and easily decomposed. BTA can cause post-CMP challenges, such as organic residue, toxicity and particle adhesion. We have been engaged in studying a weakly alkaline barrier slurry without oxidizer and benzotriazole. Based on these works, the objective of this paper is to discuss the mechanism of the development of the barrier slurry without oxidizer and benzotriazole by studying the effects of the different components (containing colloidal silica, FA/O complexing agent, pH of polishing solution and guanidine nitrate) on removal rate selectivity. The possible related polishing mechanism has also been proposed.

This work investigates systematically the effect of FA/O II chelating agent and FA/O I surfactant in alkaline cleaning solutions on benzotriazole (BTA) removal during post-Cu CMP cleaning in GLSI under the condition of static etching. The best detergent formulation for BTA removal can be determined by optimization of the experiments of single factor and compound cleaning solution, which has been further confirmed experimentally by contact angle (CA) measurements. The resulting solution with the best formulation has been measured for the actual production line, and the results demonstrate that the obtained cleaning solution can effectively and efficiently remove BTA, CuO and abrasive SiO2 without basically causing interfacial corrosion. This work demonstrates the possibility of developing a simple, low-cost and environmentally-friendly cleaning solution to effectively solve the issues of BTA removal on post-Cu CMP cleaning in a multi-layered copper wafer.

We observed and analyzed the acid and HEBUT alkaline of Cu chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurry to evaluate their effects. Material analysis has shown that the planarity surfaces and the removal rate of alkaline slurry are better than the acid slurry during metal CMP processes. The global surface roughness and the small-scale surface roughness by 10 × 10 μm2 of copper film polished by the SVTC slurry are 1.127 nm and 2.49 nm. However, it is found that the surface roughnesses of copper films polished by the HEBUT slurry are 0.728 nm and 0.215 nm. All other things being equal, the remaining step heights of copper films polished by the SVTC slurry and HEBUT slurry are respectively 150 nm and 50 nm. At the end of the polishing process, the dishing heights of the HEBUT slurry and the SVTC slurry are approximately both 30 nm, the erosion heights of the HEBUT slurry and the SVTC slurry are approximately both 20 nm. The surface states of the copper film after CMP are tested, and the AFM results of two samples are obviously seen. The surface polished by SVTC slurry shows many spikes. This indicates that the HEBUT alkaline slurry is promising for inter-level dielectric (ILD) applications in ultra large-scale integrated circuits (ULSI) technology.

Chemically dominant alkaline slurry, which is free of BTA (benzotriazole) and other inhibitors, was investigated. The synergic effect of the chelating agent and oxidant on the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) was taken into consideration. Copper CMP slurry is mainly composed of an oxidizer, nonionic surfactant, chelating agent and abrasive particles. The effect of different synergic ratios of oxidant with chelating agent on the polishing removal rate, static etch rate and planarization were detected. The planarization results reveal that with the increase of oxidant concentration, the dishing value firstly diminished and then increased again. When the synergic ratios is 3, the dishing increases the least. A theoretical model combined with chemical-mechanical kinetics process was proposed in the investigation, which can explain this phenomenon. Based on the theoretical model, the effect of synergic ratios of oxidant with chelating agent on velocity D-value (convex removal rate minus recessed removal rate) was analyzed. The results illustrate that when the synergic ratio is between 2.5–3.5, the velocity D-value is relatively higher, thereby good planarization can be achieved in this interval. This investigation provides a new guide to analyze and study copper line corrosion in the recessed region during copper clearing polishing.

Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) is a critical process in deep sub-micron integrated circuit manufacturing. This study aims to improve the planarization capability of slurry, while minimizing the mechanical action of the pressure and silica abrasive. Through conducting a series of single-factor experiments, the appropriate pressure and the optimum abrasive concentration for the alkaline slurry were confirmed. However, the reduced mechanical action may bring about a decline of the polishing rate, and further resulting in the decrease of throughput. Therefore, we take an approach to compensating for the loss of mechanical action by optimizing the composition of the slurry to enhance the chemical action in the CMP process. So 0.5 wt% abrasive concentration of alkaline slurry for copper polishing was developed, it can achieve planarization efficiently and obtain a wafer surface with no corrosion defect at a reduced pressure of 1.0 psi. The results presented here will contribute to the development of a "softer gentler polishing" technique in the future.

The influence of three kinds of guanidinium salt on the removal rate selectivity of different materials was studied during the barrier chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process at first. The three kinds of guanidine saltguanidine hydrochloride, guanidine nitrate and guanidine carbonate. Then we compared the effect of the three kinds of guanidine salt on the dishing, erosion and surface roughness value. In the end, the reaction mechanism was studied through electrochemical analysis. All the results indicate that there is a better performance of the slurry with guanidine hydrochloride than the slurries with the other two kinds of guanidine salt. It effectively improved the removal rate selectivity and the surface roughness under the premise of low abrasive concentration and low polishing pressure, which is good for the optimization of the alkaline slurry for the barrier CMP process.

A novel alkaline copper slurry that possesses a relatively high planarization performance is investigated under a low abrasive concentration. Based on the action mechanism of CMP, the feasibility of using one type of slurry in copper bulk elimination process and residual copper elimination process, with different process parameters, was analyzed. In addition, we investigated the regular change of abrasive concentration effect on copper and tantalum removal rate and within wafer non-uniformity (WIWNU) in CMP process. When the abrasive concentration is 3 wt%, in bulk elimination process, the copper removal rate achieves 6125 A/min, while WIWNU is 3.5%, simultaneously. In residual copper elimination process, the copper removal rate is approximately 2700 A/min, while WIWNU is 2.8%. Nevertheless, the tantalum removal rate is 0 A/min, which indicates that barrier layer isn't eliminated in residual copper elimination process. The planarization experimental results show that an excellent planarization performance is obtained with a relatively high copper removal rate in bulk elimination process. Meanwhile, after residual copper elimination process, the dishing value increased inconspicuously, in a controllable range, and the wafer surface roughness is only 0.326 nm (sq < 1 nm) after polishing. By comparison, the planarization performance and surface quality of alkaline slurry show almost no major differences with two kinds of commercial acid slurries after polishing. All experimental results are conducive to research and improvement of alkaline slurry in the future.

In order to achieve a high-quality quartz glass substrate and to improve the performance of TiO2 anti-reflection coating, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) method was used. During CMP process, some process parameters including pressure, polishing head speed, platen speed, slurry flow rate, polishing time, and slurry temperature were optimized to obtain lower quartz surface roughness. According to the experiment results, when pressure was 0.75 psi, polishing head speed was 65 rpm, platen speed was 60 rpm, slurry flow rate 150 mL/min, slurry temperature 20 °C, and polishing time was 60 s, the material removal rate (MRR) was 56.8 nm/min and the surface roughness (Ra) was 1.93 A (the scanned area was 10 × 10 μm2). These results were suitable for the industrial production requirements.

We propose the action mechanism of Cu chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) in an alkaline solution. Meanwhile, the effect of abrasive mass fraction on the copper removal rate and within wafer non-uniformity (WIWNU) have been researched. In addition, we have also investigated the synergistic effect between the applied pressure and the FA/O chelating agent on the copper removal rate and WIWNU in the CMP process. Based on the experimental results, we chose several concentrations of the FA/O chelating agent, which added in the slurry can obtain a relatively high removal rate and a low WIWNU after polishing, to investigate the planarization performance of the copper slurry under different applied pressure conditions. The results demonstrate that the copper removal rate can reach 6125 A/min when the abrasive concentration is 3 wt.%. From the planarization experimental results, we can see that the residual step height is 562 A after excessive copper of the wafer surface is eliminated. It denotes that a good polishing result is acquired when the FA/O chelating agent concentration and applied pressure are fixed at 3 vol% and 1 psi, respectively. All the results set forth here are very valuable for the research and development of alkaline slurry.

The copper removal rate and uniformity of two types copper slurries were investigated, which was performed on the 300 mm chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) platform. The experiment results illustrate that the removal rate of the two slurries is nearly the same. Slurry A is mainly composed of a FA/OII type chelating agent and the uniformity reaches to 88.32%. While the uniformity of slurry B is 96.68%, which is mainly composed of a FA/OV type chelating agent. This phenomenon demonstrates that under the same process conditions, the uniformity of different slurries is vastly different. The CMP performance was evaluated in terms of the dishing and erosion values. In this paper, the relationship between the uniformity and the planarization was deeply analyzed, which is mainly based on the endpoint detection mechanism. The experiment results reveal that the slurry with good uniformity has low dishing and erosion. The slurry with bad uniformity, by contract, increases Cu dishing significantly and causes copper loss in the recessed region. Therefore, the following conclusions are drawn: slurry B can improve the wafer leveling efficiently and minimize the resistance and current density along the line, which is helpful to improve the device yield and product reliability. This investigation provides a guide to improve the uniformity and achieve the global and local planarization. It is very significant to meet the requirements for 22 nm technology nodes and control the dishing and erosion efficiently.

The stability of a novel low-pH alkaline slurry (marked as slurry A, pH = 8.5) for copper chemical mechanical planarization was investigated in this paper. First of all, the stability mechanism of the alkaline slurry was studied. Then many parameters have been tested for researching the stability of the slurry through comparing with a traditional alkaline slurry (marked as slurry B, pH = 9.5), such as the pH value, particle size and zeta potential. Apart from this, the stability of the copper removal rate, dishing, erosion and surface roughness were also studied. All the results show that the stability of the novel low-pH alkaline slurry is better than the traditional alkaline slurry. The working-life of the novel low-pH alkaline slurry reaches 48 h.

Surface roughness by peaks and depressions on the surface of titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin film, which was widely used for an antireflection coating of optical systems, caused the extinction coefficient increase and affected the properties of optical system. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a very important method for surface smoothing. In this polishing experiment, we used self-formulated weakly alkaline slurry. Other process parameters were working pressure, slurry flow rate, head speed, and platen speed. In order to get the best surface roughness (1.16 A, the scanned area was 10 × 10 μm2) and a higher polishing rate (60.8 nm/min), the optimal parameters were: pressure, 1 psi; slurry flow rate, 250 mL/min; polishing head speed, 80 rpm; platen speed, 87 rpm.

There is a lot of hydroxyl on the surface of nano SiO2 sol used as an abrasive in the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process, and the chemical reaction activity of the hydroxyl is very strong due to the nano effect. In addition to providing a mechanical polishing effect, SiO2 sol is also directly involved in the chemical reaction. The stability of SiO2 sol was characterized through particle size distribution, zeta potential, viscosity, surface charge and other parameters in order to ensure that the chemical reaction rate in the CMP process, and the surface state of the copper film after CMP was not affected by the SiO2 sol. Polarization curves and corrosion potential of different concentrations of SiO2 sol showed that trace SiO2 sol can effectively weaken the passivation film thickness. In other words, SiO2 sol accelerated the decomposition rate of passive film. It was confirmed that the SiO2 sol as reactant had been involved in the CMP process of copper film as reactant by the effect of trace SiO2 sol on the removal rate of copper film in the CMP process under different conditions. In the CMP process, a small amount of SiO2 sol can drastically alter the chemical reaction rate of the copper film, therefore, the possibility that Cu/SiO2 as a catalytic system catalytically accelerated the chemical reaction in the CMP process was proposed. According to the van't Hoff isotherm formula and the characteristics of a catalyst which only changes the chemical reaction rate with out changing the total reaction standard Gibbs free energy, factors affecting the Cu/SiO2 catalytic reaction were derived from the decomposition rate of Cu (OH)2 and the pH value of the system, and then it was concluded that the CuSiO3 as intermediates of Cu/SiO2 catalytic reaction accelerated the chemical reaction rate in the CMP process. It was confirmed that the Cu/SiO2 catalytic system generated the intermediate of the catalytic reaction (CuSiO3) in the CMP process through the removal rate of copper film, infrared spectrum and AFM diagrams in different pH conditions. Finally it is concluded that the SiO2 sol used in the experiment possesses stable performance; in the CMP process it is directly involved in the chemical reaction by creating the intermediate of the catalytic reaction (CuSiO3) whose yield is proportional to the pH value, which accelerates the removal of copper film.

The oxidation induced stacking faults (OISFs) exposed on the surface of polished silicon substrate are harmful to the electrical performance and reliability of the device region located on the wafer surface. This work investigates the characteristics of the novel nano colloidal silica alkaline slurry, including polyamine and complex non-ions surface surfactant. The experimental results show that when the pH value is higher than 10.1, the removal rate can be higher than 750 nm/min and the surface roughness can be lower than 0.3 nm (10 × 10 μm2). The surface OISFs existing on the wafer are efficiently controlled with the slurry, and the defect density on the polished wafer surface decreases greatly as well.

This article introduces the removal technology of CuO particles on the post CMP wafer surface of multi-layered copper. According to the Cu film corrosion curve with different concentrations of H2O2 and the effect curve of time on the growth rate of CuO film, CuO film with the thickness of 220 nm grown on Cu a surface was successfully prepared without the interference of CuCl2-2H2O. Using the static corrosion experiment the type of chelating agent (FA/O II type chelating agent) and the concentration range (10–100 ppm) for CuO removal was determined, and the Cu removal rate was close to zero. The effect of surfactant on the cleaning solution properties was studied, and results indicated that the surfactant has the effect of reducing the surface tension and viscosity of the cleaning solution, and making the cleaning agent more stable. The influence of different concentrations of FA/O I type surfactant and the mixing of FA/O II type chelating agent and FA/O I type surfactant on the CuO removal effect and the film surface state was analyzed. The experimental results indicated that when the concentration of FA/O I type surfactant was 50 ppm, CuO particles were quickly removed, and the surface state was obviously improved. The best removal effect of CuO on the copper wiring film surface was achieved with the cleaning agent ratio of FA/O II type chelating agent 75 ppm and FA/O I type surfactant 50 ppm. Finally, the organic residue on the copper pattern film after cleaning with that cleaning agent was detected, and the results showed that the cleaning used agent did not generate organic residues on the film surface, and effectively removes the organic residue on the wafer.

We propose an alkaline barrier slurry containing guanidine hydrochloride (GH) and hydrogen peroxide. The slurry does not contain any corrosion inhibitors, such as benzotriazole (BTA). 3-inch samples of tantalum copper and oxide were polished to observe the removal rate. The effect of GH on removal rate selectivity along with hydrogen peroxide was investigated by comparing slurry containing GH and H2O2 with slurry containing only GH. Details about the tantalum polishing mechanism in an alkaline guanidine-based slurry and the electrochemical reactions are discussed. The results show that guanidine hydrochloride can increase the tantalum polishing rate and the selectivity of copper and barrier materials. The variation of the dishing and wire line resistance with the polishing time was measured. The dishing value after a 300 mm pattern wafer polishing suggests that the slurry has an effective performance in topography modification. The result obtained from the copper wire line resistance test reveals that the wire line in the trench has a low copper loss.

We have proposed a TSV (through-silicon-via) alkaline barrier slurry without any inhibitors for barrier CMP (chemical mechanical planarization) and investigated its CMP performance. The characteristics of removal rate and selectivity of Ti/SiO2/Cu were investigated under the same process conditions. The results obtained from 6.2 mm copper, titanium and silica show that copper has a low removal rate during barrier CMP by using this slurry, and Ti and SiO2 have high removal rate selectivity to Cu. Thus it may be helpful to modify the dishing. The TSV wafer results reveal that the alkaline barrier slurry has an obvious effect on surface topography correction, and can be applied in TSV barrier CMP.

This study reports a new weakly alkaline slurry for copper chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), it can achieve a high planarization efficiency at a reduced down pressure of 1.0 psi. The slurry is studied through the polish rate, planarization, copper surface roughness and stability. The copper polishing experiment result shows that the polish rate can reach 10032 A/min. From the multi-layers copper CMP test, a good result is obtained, that is a big step height (10870 A) that can be eliminated in just 35 s, and the copper root mean square surface roughness (sq) is very low (< 1 nm). Apart from this, compared with the alkaline slurry researched before, it has a good progress on stability of copper polishing rate, stable for 12 h at least. All the results presented here are relevant for further developments in the area of copper CMP.

This work investigates the static corrosion and removal rates of copper as functions of H2O2 and FA/OIIconcentration, and uses DC electrochemical measurements such as open circuit potential (OCP), Tafel analysis, as well as cyclic voltammetry (CV) to study H2O2 and FA/OIIdependent surface reactions of Cu coupon electrode in alkaline slurry without an inhibitor. An atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique is also used to measure the surface roughness and surface morphology of copper in static corrosion and polishing conditions. It is shown that 0.5 vol.% H2O2 should be the primary choice to achieve high material removal rate. The electrochemical results reveal that the addition of FA/O II can dissolve partial oxide film to accelerate the electrochemical anodic reactions and make the oxide layer porous, so that the structurally weak oxide film can be easily removed by mechanical abrasion. The variation of surface roughness and morphology of copper under static conditions is consistent with and provides further support for the reaction mechanisms proposed in the context of DC electrochemical measurements. In addition, in the presence of H2O2, 3 vol.% FA/O II may be significantly effective from a surface roughness perspective to obtain a relatively flat copper surface in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process.

The mechanism of the FA/O chelating agent in the process of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is introduced. CMP is carried on a Φ300 mm copper film. The higher polishing rate and lower surface roughness are acquired due to the action of an FA/O chelating agent with an extremely strong chelating ability under the condition of low pressure and low abrasive concentration during the CMP process. According to the results of several kinds of additive interaction curves when the pressure is 13.78 kPa, flow rate is 150 mL/min, and the rotating speed is 55/60 rpm, it can be demonstrated that the FA/O chelating agent plays important role during the CMP process.

CMP process optimization for bulk copper removal based on alkaline copper slurry was performed on a 300 mm Applied Materials Reflexion LK system. Under the DOE condition, we conclude that as the pressure increases, the removal rate increases and non-uniformity is improved. As the slurry flow rate increases, there is no significant improvement in the material removal rate, but it does slightly reduce the WIWNU and thus improve uniformity. The optimal variables are obtained at a reduced pressure of 1.5 psi and a slurry flow rate of 300 ml/min. Platen/carrier rotary speed is set at a constant value of 97/103 rpm. We obtain optimized CMP characteristics including a removal rate over 6452 A/min and non-uniformity below 4% on blanket wafer and the step height is reduced by nearly 8000 A/min in the center of the wafer on eight layers of copper patterned wafer, the surface roughness is reduced to 0.225 nm.

The evaluation methods of planarization capability of copper slurry are investigated. Planarization capability and material removal rate are the most essential properties of slurry. The goal of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is to achieve a flat and smooth surface. Planarization capability is the elimination capability of the step height on the copper pattern wafer surface, and reflects the passivation capability of the slurry to a certain extent. Through analyzing the planarization mechanism of the CMP process and experimental results, the planarization capability of the slurry can be evaluated by the following five aspects: pressure sensitivity, temperature sensitivity, static etch rate, planarization efficiency and saturation properties.

The chemical mechanical polishing/planarization (CMP) performance of an inhibitor-free alkaline copper slurry is investigated. The results of the Cu dissolution rate (DR) and the polish rate (PR) show that the alkaline slurry without inhibitors has a relatively high copper removal rate and considerable dissolution rate. Although the slurry with inhibitors has a somewhat low DR, the copper removal rate was significantly reduced due to the addition of inhibitors (Benzotriazole, BTA). The results obtained from pattern wafers show that the alkaline slurry without inhibitors has a better planarization efficacy; it can planarize the uneven patterned surface during the excess copper removal. These results indicate that the proposed inhibitor-free copper slurry has a considerable planarization capability for CMP of Cu pattern wafers, it can be applied in the first step of Cu CMP for copper bulk removal.

We have developed an alkaline barrier slurry (named FA/O slurry) for barrier removal and evaluated its chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) performance through comparison with a commercially developed barrier slurry. The FA/O slurry consists of colloidal silica, which is a complexing and an oxidizing agent, and does not have any inhibitors. It was found that the surface roughness of copper blanket wafers polished by the FA/O slurry was lower than the commercial barrier slurry, demonstrating that it leads to a better surface quality. In addition, the dishing and electrical tests also showed that the patterned wafers have a lower dishing value and sheet resistance as compared to the commercial barrier slurry. By comparison, the FA/O slurry demonstrates good planarization performance and can be used for barrier CMP.

The composition of the polishing solution is optimized by investigating the impact of the WIWNU (the so-called within-wafer-non-uniformity WIWNU) and the removal rate (RR) on the polishing characteristics of copper. The oxidizer concentration is 1 Vol%; the abrasive concentration is 0.8 Vol%; the chelating agent of the solution is 2 Vol%. The working pressure is 1 kPa. The defect on the surface is degraded and the surface is clean after polishing. The removal rate is 289 nm/min and the WIWNU is 0.065. The surface roughness measured by AFM after CMP (chemical mechanical planarization) is 0.22 nm.

For process integration considerations, we will investigate the impact of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) on the electrical characteristics of the pattern Cu wafer. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of the CMP process with two kinds of slurry, one of which is acid slurry of SVTC and the other is FA/O alkaline slurry purchased from Tianjin Jingling Microelectronic Material Limited. Three aspects were investigated: resistance, capacitance and leakage current. The result shows that after polishing by the slurry of FA/O, the resistance is lower than the SVTC. After polishing by the acid slurry and FA/O alkaline slurry, the difference in capacitance is not very large. The values are 0.1 nF and 0.12 nF, respectively. The leakage current of the film polished by the slurry of FA/O is 0.01 nA, which is lower than the slurry of SVTC. The results show that the slurry of FA/O produced less dishing and oxide loss than the slurry of SVTC.

This paper presents a new cleaning process using boron-doped diamond (BDD) film anode electrochemical oxidation for metallic contaminants on polished silicon wafer surfaces. The BDD film anode electrochemical oxida- tion can efficiently prepare pyrophosphate peroxide, pyrophosphate peroxide can oxidize organic contaminants, and pyrophosphate peroxide is deoxidized into pyrophosphate. Pyrophosphate, a good complexing agent, can form a metal complex, which is a structure consisting of a copper ion, bonded to a surrounding array of two pyrophosphate anions. Three polished wafers were immersed in the 0.01 mol/L CuSO4 solution for 2 h in order to make comparative exper- iments. The first one was cleaned by pyrophosphate peroxide, the second by RCA (Radio Corporation of America) cleaning, and the third by deionized (DI) water. The XPS measurement result shows that the metallic contaminants on wafers cleaned by the RCA method and by pyrophosphate peroxide is less than the XPS detection limits of 1 ppm. And the wafer's surface cleaned by pyrophosphate peroxide is more efficient in removing organic carbon residues than RCA cleaning. Therefore, BDD film anode electrochemical oxidation can be used for microelectronics cleaning, and it can effectively remove organic contaminants and metallic contaminants in one step. It also achieves energy saving and environmental protection.

This paper presents a new cleaning process for particle and organic contaminants on polished silicon wafer surfaces. It combines a non-ionic surfactant with boron-doped diamond (BDD) film anode electrochemical oxidation. The non-ionic surfactant is used to remove particles on the polished wafer's surface, because it can form a protective film on the surface, which makes particles easy to remove. The effects of particle removal comparative experiments were observed by metallographic microscopy, which showed that the 1% v/v non-ionic surfactant achieved the best result. However, the surfactant film itself belongs to organic contamination, and it eventually needs to be removed. BDD film anode electrochemical oxidation (BDD-EO) is used to remove organic contaminants, because it can efficiently degrade organic matter. Three organic contaminant removal comparative experiments were carried out: the first one used the non-ionic surfactant in the first step and then used BDD-EO, the second one used BDD-EO only, and the last one used RCA cleaning technique. The XPS measurement result shows that the wafer's surface cleaned by BDD-EO has much less organic residue than that cleaned by RCA cleaning technique, and the non-ionic surfactant can be efficiently removed by BDD-EO.