Engineering the Interaction Forces to Optimize CMP Performance

Abstract

AbstractThe main objective of Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process is to planarize the metal or dielectric layers deposited on the wafer surfaces in microelectronics device manufacturing. In CMP, slurries containing submicrometer size particles and chemicals are used to achieve planarization. An effective polishing requires an optimal material removal rate with minimal surface deformation. Therefore, it is important to control the particle-substrate interactions that are responsible for the material removal and the particle-particle interactions, which control the slurry stability and consequently the defect density. This paper discusses the impact of interaction forces on polishing, and underlines the scientific guidelines to formulate consistently high performing CMP slurries.