Dielectric erosion is an existing issue for copper damascene chemical mechanical planarization even when hard dielectric materials such as dense SiO_2 are used. A non-contact, non-slurry planarization process would provide distinct advantages for existing technologies as well as for future-generation, porous, ultra-low-k dielectrics that will be more susceptible to mechanical damage during chemical mechanical planarization. One such process in development is "spin-etch planarization," a wet-etch process using no physical contact with the wafer surface. Progress on this work is presented here.
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