This dissertation presents a series of studies with regards to wear and contact phenomena in existing and future large-scale chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). They are also evaluated with the purposes of reducing cost of ownership (COO) and minimizing environmental impacts. The first study is performed to investigate the effect of retaining ring slot design, material and temperature on pad wear during interlayer dielectric CMP. During polishing, friction is generated at the retaining ring-pad interface resulting in pad wear. Three retaining rings are used in this study and the results show that the retaining ring material and temperature have significant impacts on the pad wear rate. In the next study, a custom-made sample holder is designed to heat pad sample. Pad surface contact area and density are measured at three different temperatures using laser confocal microscopy to illustrate the effect of temperature on the mechanical contact during CMP. In the third study, the tribological, thermal and kinetic attributes of 300 mm copper CMP process are investigated. The current state-of-the-art IC manufacturing factories have migrated from 200 mm wafer processes to 300 mm to reduce manufacturing COO and increase throughput. In this study, a two-step modified Langmuir-Hinshelwood model is used to simulate copper removal rate as well as chemical and mechanical dominance during CMP. The fourth study evaluates the relationship between planarization and pad surface contact area and micro-topography using laser confocal microscopy. Results of confocal microscopic analysis are correlated with polishing performance in terms of coefficient of friction, removal rate, time to clear, dishing and erosion. As Ti has recently regained attention in copper barrier applications, the effect of temperature during Ti CMP is investigated in another study to provide fundamental understanding of Ti removal mechanism. The last contribution of this dissertation involves a study on 450 mm CMP process. An existing 300 mm CMP tool is modified to polish both 300 and 450 mm wafers to demonstrate experimentally whether any differences exist in the tribological and thermal characteristics of the two processes, and from that, to infer whether one can expect any removal rate difference between the two systems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/223313 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Jiao, Yubo |
| Contributors | Philipossian, Ara, Shadman, Farhang, Sorooshian, Armin, Philipossian, Ara |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Electronic Dissertation |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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