Low-K Dielectric Material Chemical Mechanical Polishing Process Monitoring using Acoustic Emission

1997 ◽  
Vol 476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianshe Tang ◽  
Carsten Unger ◽  
Yongsik Moon ◽  
David Dornfeld
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Acoustic Emission ◽  
Material Removal Rate ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Dielectric Material ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Wafer Surface ◽  
Low K ◽  
Ae Signals

AbstractLow-k dielectric material removal rate, which is significantly affected by process factors such as polishing load, wafer carrier rotation, platen rotation speed and pad age, is one of the critical issues in CMP planarization of a dielectric film when concerning productivity, throughputs and stabilization of the process, especially when trying to achieve a target polishing thickness. Scratching is another critical issue in low-k dielectric filmi CMP planarization due to the lower hardness relative to silicon dioxide. This research relates to a methodology for in-situ monitoring of the low-k dielectric material CMP planarization process, specifically for monitoring material removal rate and scratch occurrence, using acoustic emission (AE) sensing technology.Systematic investigations of CMP process variables on AE signals were carried out in this research. The sensitivity of AE to polishing load, polishing speed, wafer surface roughness (wafer pattern density) and pad roughness were verified. The results showed that, under steady state, the AE rms signal increases with increasing polishing load, polishing speed, slurry particle size, wafer surface roughness and pad roughness.Based on the research in tribology and other application fields of loose abrasive machining such as lapping and polishing, scratching was known to be caused by the presence of particles which are much larger than average slurry particles. It has been proven that scratching can be avoided or reduced by timely cleaning the slurry supply system. Therefore, to avoid scratching, one strategy is to develop an in-situ method for detecting larger particles involved in CMP process. In this paper, the high sensitivity of AE signals to the presence of larger particles during CMP was experimentally verified.

Experimental Study of Lapping Using Mixed Abrasive Grits

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunhui Chung ◽  
Glenn Melendez ◽  
Imin Kao
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Surface Quality ◽  
Material Removal Rate ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Wafer Surface ◽  
Thickness Variation ◽  
Parameter Study ◽  
Manufacturing Processes ◽  
Mixing Ratios

Wafers made of materials such as silicon, III-V and II-VI compounds, and optoelectronic materials, require high-degree of surface quality in order to increase the yield in micro-electronics fabrication to produce IC chips and devices. Measures of properties of surface quality of wafers include: nanotopography, surface morphology, global planarization, total thickness variation (TTV) and warp. Due to the reduction of feature size in micro-electronics fabrication, the requirements of such properties become more and more stringent. To meet such requirements, the wafer manufacturing processes of brittle semiconductor materials, such as slicing, lapping, grinding, and polishing have been continually improved. In this paper, the lapping process of wafer surface treatment is studied with experimental results of surface roughness and material removal rate. In order to improve the performance of lapping process, effects of mixed abrasive grits in the slurry of the free abrasive machining (FAM) processes are studied using a single-sided wafer-lapping machine. Under the same slurry density, experiments employing different mixing ratios of large and small abrasive grits, and various normal loadings on the wafer surface applied through a jig are conducted for parameter study. With various mixing ratios and loadings, observations and measurements such as the total amount of material removed, material removal rate, surface roughness, and relative angular velocity are presented and discussed in this paper. The experiments show that the half-half mixing ratio of abrasives removes more material than other mixing ratios under the same conditions, but with a higher surface roughness. The results of this study can provide a good reference to the FAM processes that practitioners use today by exploiting different mixing ratios and loadings of abrasive slurry in the manufacturing processes.

scholarly journals Optimal design and experimental study of fixed abrasive pads based on coupling of damping regulation and pellet arrangement

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Chaoqun Xu ◽  
Congfu Fang ◽  
Yuan Li ◽  
Chong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Pressure Distribution ◽  
Material Removal Rate ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Wafer Surface ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Workpiece Material ◽  
Fixed Abrasive

Abstract. Lapping and polishing technology is an efficient processing method for wafer planarization processing. The structure of the fixed abrasive pad (FAP) is one of the most concerning issues in the research. The FAP structure affects the pressure distribution on the wafer surface, and the pressure distribution during processing has a significant influence on the wafer surface. Therefore, in this paper, a better pressure distribution is obtained by adjusting the angle of the spiral arrangement and the damping distribution of the damping layer of the FAP, thereby obtaining better processing quality. Based on the above theory, a new type of FAP, with coupling between the arrangement of the pellets and the damping regulation of the damping layer, was designed and optimized. The machining effects of different FAPs on the workpiece surface are compared in terms of material removal rate, material removal thickness, and surface roughness. The test results show that the workpiece material removal rate is higher than that of the traditional FAP when using the optimized FAP. The non-uniformity of the optimized FAP for that of material removal was 4.034 µm, which was lower than the traditional FAPs by 24.4 % and 17.6 %, respectively. The average surface roughness, Ra, of the optimized FAP is 0.21 µm, which is lower than 19.1 % and 12.5 % of the two traditional FAPs, respectively. Therefore, workpiece material removal and distribution are more uniform, and the surface quality of the workpiece is better when the optimized FAP processing is used. The test results prove that the optimized pellet arrangement and damping can achieve a better surface quality of the workpiece, which can meet the precision lapping process requirements for high-quality surfaces and large-scale production of brittle and hard materials such as sapphire.

Experimental Investigation on Chemical-Mechanical Polishing of Wafers With Low-Conductivity Dielectrics

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jhy-Cherng Tsai ◽  
Charls Liu ◽  
Ming-Hsih Tsai ◽  
Bao-Tong Dai
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Mechanical Polishing ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Sandwich Structure ◽  
Dielectric Material ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Mechanical Polishing ◽  
Wafer Surface ◽  
Key Technologies ◽  
Semiconductor Fabrication ◽  
Low K

Abstract Low conductivity (low-k) dielectric material is used in the sandwich structure of next-generation semiconductor devices in order to reduce the RC time delay. While global flatness of wafer surface becomes critical for deep sub-micro semiconductor fabrication process, chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) becomes one of the key technologies for planarization of wafer surface. This paper investigated the effect of the low-k material on the CMP of the SiO2 cap layer of such a sandwiched wafer. Two types of wafers, blanket wafer and wafer with circuit pattern, are designed and conducted to investigate the effects of the thickness of the low-k layer under different polishing pressures and velocities. Material removal rate (RR) and non-uniformity (NU) are used as indices of the CMP process performance. The results show that the RR and NU of wafers with low-k layer, either blanket or with circuit pattern, become better when the pressure or velocity increases. The thickness of the low-k layer, however, has only tiny effect on the RR and NU.

Study on the Effect of Nonionic Surfactant in Copper CMP Slurry

2010 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Feng Wei Huo ◽  
Zhu Ji Jin ◽  
Ran Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Material Removal Rate ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Nonionic Surfactants ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Wafer Surface ◽  
Alkylphenol Ethoxylates ◽  
Etch Pits ◽  
Weight Percentage

The effect of surfactant in alkaline slurry for copper chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) was studied through polishing experiments with slurries containing different weight percentage of four nonionic surfactants respectively. The results indicate that properly chosen nonionic surfactants with proper weight percentage could result in little negative influence on the material removal rate, but can help to improve copper wafer surface quality significantly. Alkylphenol ethoxylates was found to be an excellent surfactant for alkaline slurry and a surface roughness of Ra 0.89nm and a material removal rate of 526 nm/min were obtained when polishing with the slurry containing 0.25 wt% alkylphenol ethoxylates, while the surface roughness and the material removal rate were Ra 1.34nm and 525 nm/min respectively when polishing with the origin slurry. The density of polishing defects such as scratches and etch pits decreased significantly. The action mechanism of surfactant was further analyzed based on the experiment results.

Effect of Surface Profile on the Material Removal Rate Distribution in CMP Process

2014 ◽  
Vol 1017 ◽  
pp. 715-719
Author(s):  
Ping Zhou ◽  
Ji Qing Cai ◽  
Zhi Wei Li ◽  
Ren Ke Kang ◽  
Zhu Ji Jin
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Distribution ◽  
Material Removal Rate ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Surface Profile ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Wafer Surface ◽  
Contact Pressure Distribution ◽  
Effect Of Surface

Material removal rate (MRR) distribution is a major concern in CMP process. In the published literatures, both experimental and theoretical research, MRR distribution is given without considering the surface profile of wafer. In this paper, the effect of surface profile on the MRR is analyzed based on the Preston equation and the contact pressure distribution calculated by the mixed lubrication model. It is found that the MRR distribution is dramatically affected by the profile of wafer surface, and whatever the polishing pad is conditioned in situ, the MRR distribution will be uniform at last. In addition, the wear of the pad surface induces a decrease of MRR.

Effects of Process Parameters on Surface Roughness and MRR in the hard turning of EN 36 steel

2018 ◽  
pp. 102-110
Author(s):  
Amritpal Singh ◽  
Rakesh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Material Removal Rate ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Hard Turning ◽  
Control Parameter ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Cutting Speed ◽  
Depth Of Cut ◽  
Cutting Condition ◽  
Dry Cutting

In the present study, Experimental investigation of the effects of various cutting parameters on the response parameters in the hard turning of EN36 steel under the dry cutting condition is done. The input control parameters selected for the present work was the cutting speed, feed and depth of cut. The objective of the present work is to minimize the surface roughness to obtain better surface finish and maximization of material removal rate for better productivity. The design of experiments was done with the help of Taguchi L9 orthogonal array. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to find out the significance of the input parameters on the response parameters. Percentage contribution for each control parameter was calculated using ANOVA with 95 % confidence value. From results, it was observed that feed is the most significant factor for surface roughness and the depth of cut is the most significant control parameter for Material removal rate.

Effect of SiC-Cu Electrode on Material Removal Rate, Tool Wear and Surface Roughness in EDM Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (9A) ◽  
pp. 1406-1413
Author(s):  
Yousif Q. Laibia ◽  
Saad K. Shather
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Tool Wear ◽  
Material Removal Rate ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Electrical Discharge Machining ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
304 Stainless Steel ◽  
Tool Electrode ◽  
Pulse Time ◽  
Edm Process

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is one of the most common non-traditional processes for the manufacture of high precision parts and complex shapes. The EDM process depends on the heat energy between the work material and the tool electrode. This study focused on the material removal rate (MRR), the surface roughness, and tool wear in a 304 stainless steel EDM. The composite electrode consisted of copper (Cu) and silicon carbide (SiC). The current effects imposed on the working material, as well as the pulses that change over time during the experiment. When the current used is (8, 5, 3, 2, 1.5) A, the pulse time used is (12, 25) μs and the size of the space used is (1) mm. Optimum surface roughness under a current of 1.5 A and the pulse time of 25 μs with a maximum MRR of 8 A and the pulse duration of 25 μs.

Enhancement of EDM Performance by Using Copper-Silver Composite Electrode

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (9A) ◽  
pp. 1352-1358
Author(s):  
Saad K. Shather ◽  
Abbas A. Ibrahim ◽  
Zainab H. Mohsein ◽  
Omar H. Hassoon
Keyword(s):  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Material Removal Rate ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Composite Electrode ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Pure Copper ◽  
High Speed Steel ◽  
Pulse On Time ◽  
Pulse Off Time

Discharge Machining is a non-traditional machining technique and usually applied for hard metals and complex shapes that difficult to machining in the traditional cutting process. This process depends on different parameters that can affect the material removal rate and surface roughness. The electrode material is one of the important parameters in Electro –Discharge Machining (EDM). In this paper, the experimental work carried out by using a composite material electrode and the workpiece material from a high-speed steel plate. The cutting conditions: current (10 Amps, 12 Amps, 14 Amps), pulse on time (100 µs, 150 µs, 200 µs), pulse off time 25 µs, casting technique has been carried out to prepare the composite electrodes copper-sliver. The experimental results showed that Copper-Sliver (weight ratio70:30) gives better results than commonly electrode copper, Material Removal Rate (MRR) Copper-Sliver composite electrode reach to 0.225 gm/min higher than the pure Copper electrode. The lower value of the tool wear rate achieved with the composite electrode is 0.0001 gm/min. The surface roughness of the workpiece improved with a composite electrode compared with the pure electrode.

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