A review: research progress of chemical–mechanical polishing slurry for copper interconnection of integrated circuits.

When the integrated circuit (IC) feature size is reduced to 0.13 μm and below, copper (Cu) becomes the new wiring material in interconnect materials. The double damascene process is the only process for Cu patterning that is mature and has been successfully applied to IC manufacturing, so Cu interconnection chemical–mechanical polishing (CMP), which can achieve the surface nanoscale accuracy required by lithography level, is of great importance to the IC industry. The slurry is the most important component of the CMP materials and has a significant impact on the surface quality of the polished wafer. Therefore, how to select suitable additives to improve the chemical effect and obtain excellent post-polishing surface and good slurry stability while saving cost is an urgent issue to be considered. The research progress of each component in Cu interconnection slurry was discussed in this paper, mainly focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of acidic and alkaline slurries, and the research progress of oxidants, complexing agents, surfactants, and corrosion inhibitors as well as their respective action mechanisms were analyzed in detail, which will be a great contribution to the IC field. It will facilitate the optimization of the slurry for further development of new Cu interconnection CMP slurry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]