With continuous increase in the complexity of current microelectronic devices and integration of Cu as interconnect, it is required that CMP provides a good surface planarity with minimal surface defectivity. One of the prominent roles of the abrasive particles is its ability to interact with chemical components found in the slurry. Surface adsorption of chemical components on to the abrasive particles can alter the intended chemical and mechanical balance of the slurry. Slurries consisting of abrasive particles of similar characteristics but different surface adsorption characteristic may perform differently in a CMP process. Furthermore, the introduction of copper ions during copper CMP may exacerbate the complexity. These copper ions could interact with the chemical components in the slurry to form copper complexes and also could change the adsorption characteristic of the abrasive particles. The formation of the copper complex and the change in the adsorption characteristic of the particles could have a great impact on the copper CMP performance. In this poster, competitive surface adsorption of key chemicals on abrasive particles in a model copper CMP slurry will be studied using Spin-Echo technique. The impact of such competitive surface adsorption on the CMP performance will be exemplified with silica based slurry.
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Back to The 33rd Northeast Regional Meeting (July 14-17, 2005)