Visualized characterization of slurry film between wafer and padduring chemical mechanical planarization

摘要

Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) has emerged recently as annindispensable processing technique for planarization in submicrometernmultilevel very large scale integration (VLSI). The demand from industrynfor fast material removal and a high degree of uniformity has been anserious challenge for the advancement of this key technology. Amongnvarious process aspects, the slurry flow between wafer and pad plays annimportant role in the pursuit of these goals. This study provides anvisualized characterization of the amount and distribution of the fluidnfilm between the wafer and pad. The fluid film is analyzed by thendigital picture obtained through the transparent carrier and dyed fluid.nThe effects of process parameters are extensively investigated,nincluding platen and carrier speed, pad design, rinsing location, andnflow rate of slurry and wafer size. Suggestions for process recipesnaiming at fast and uniform CMP are drawn based on the current results