Abstract
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is the most effective method for surface planarization in the semiconductor industry. Nanoparticles are significant for material removal and ultra-smooth surface formation. This research investigates the mechanical effects of the material removal in the CMP process. The various contact states of pad, individual particle, and wafer caused by the variations of working conditions and material properties are analyzed. Three different mechanical models for the material removal in the CMP process, i.e., abrasive wear, adhesive wear, and erosive wear are investigated, with a focus on the comparison of the results for different models. The conclusions and methods obtained could potentially contribute to the understanding and evaluation of the CMP process in further work.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Tong Z. Present situation and future development of chemical mechanical polishing. Equipment for Electronic Products 33(6): 1–6 2004
Gehman B L. In the age of 300mm silicon, tech standards are even more crucial. Solid State Technol 44(8): 128–130 2001
Dejule R. CMP challenges below a quarter micron. Semicond Int 20(13): 54–60 1997
Preston F. The theory and design of plate glass polishing machines. Soc Glass Technol 11: 214–256 1927
Warnock J. A two-dimensional process model for chemimechanical polish planarization. J Electrocheml Soc 138(8): 2398–2402 1991
Runnels S R, Eyman L M. Tribology analysis of chemicalmechanical polishing. J Electrochem Soc 141(6): 1698–1701 1994
Tseng W T, Wang Y L. Re-examination of pressure and speed dependence of removal rate during chemical-mechanical polishing process. J Electrochem Soc 144(2): 15–17 1997
Zhang F, Bunaina A. The role of particle adhesion and surface deformation in chemical mechanical polishing processes. Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters 1(4): 184–187 1998
Shi F G, Zhao B. Modeling of chemical-mechanical polishing with soft pads. Appl Phys A 67(2): 249–252 1998
Zhao B, Shi F G. Chemical mechanical polishing: Threshold pressure and mechanism. Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters 2(3): 145–147 1999
Yu Y, Yu C C, Orlowski M. A statistical polishing pad model for chemical-polishing. In IEEE IEDM, Washington DC, 1993: 865–868.
Liu C, Dai B, Tseng W. Modeling of the wear mechanism during chemical-mechanical polishing. J Electrochem Soc 143(2): 716–721 1996
Zhang L, Tanaka H. Atomic scale deformation in silicon monocrystals induced by two-body and three-body contact sliding. Tribol Int 31(8): 424–433 1998
Basse J L, Liang H. Probable role of abrasion in chemo chemical polishing of tungsten. Wear 233–235: 647–654 1999
Zhao Y, Maietta D M, Chang L. An asperity microcontact model incorporating the transition from elastic deformation to fully plastic flow. J Tribol 122(1): 86–92 2000
Luo J, Dornfled D A. Material removal mechanism in chemical mechanical polishing: Theory and modeling. IEEE Trans Semicond Manuf 14(2): 112–132 2001
Zhao Y, Chang L. A micro-contact and wear model for chemical-mechanical polishing of silicon wafers. Wear 252(s3–4): 220–226 (2002)
Ahmadi G, Xia X. A model for mechanical wear and abrasive particle adhesion during the chemical mechanical polishing process. J Electrochem Soc 148(3): G99–G109 (2001)
Fu G, Chandra A, Guha S, Subhash G. A plasticity-based model of material removal in chemical-mechanical polishing. IEEE Trans Semicond Manuf 14(4): 406–416 2001
Wang Y, Zhao Y, An W, Wang J. Modeling the effects of cohesive energy for single particle on the material removal in chemical mechanical polishing at atomic scale. Appl Surf Sci 253(23): 9137–9141 2007
Jeng Y R, Huang P Y. Impact of abrasive particles on the material removal rate in CMP. Electrochemical and Solid- State Letters 7(2): 40–43 2004
Jeng Y R, Huang P Y. A material removal rate model considering interfacial micro-contact wear behavior for chemical mechanical polishing. J Tribol 127(1): 190–196 2005
Xu X, Luo J, Lu X, Zhang C, Guo D. Effect of nanoparticle impact on material removal. Tribol Trans 51(6): 718–722 2008
Xu X, Luo J. Marangoni flow in an evaporating water droplet. Appl Phys Lett 91(12): 124102 2007
Xu X, Luo J, Guo D. Nanoparticle-wall collision in a laminar cylindrical liquid jet. J Colloid Interf Sci 359(2): 334–338 2011
Xia X, Ahamdi G. Surface removal rate in chemicalmechanical polishing. Particulate Science and Technology 20(3): 187–196 2002
Si L, Guo D, Luo J, Lu X. Monoatomic layer removal mechanism in chemical mechanical polishing process: A molecular dynamics study. J Appl Phys 107(6): 064310 2010
Guo D, Li J N, Xie G X, Wang Y Y, Luo J B. Elastic properties of polystyrene nanosphere evaluated with atomic force microscopy: Size effect and error analysis. Langmuir 30(24): 7206–7212 2014
Zhou Y, Pan G. Effects of ultra-smooth surface atomic step morphology on chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) performances of sapphire and SiC wafers. Tribol Int 87: 145–150 2015
Rabinowicz E. Friction and Wear of Materials. John Wiley & Sons, New York 1995.
Lin G, Guo D, Xie G, Jia Q, Pan G. In situ observation of colloidal particle behavior between two planar surfaces. Colloids and Surfaces A-Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 482: 656–661 2015
Lei J, Guo D, Luo J, Pan G. Probing particle movement in cmp with fluorescence technique. J Electrocheml Soc 158(6): H681–H685 (2011)
Yao W, Chen B, Liu C. Energetic coefficient of restitution for planar impact in multi-rigid-body systems with friction. Int J Impact Eng 31: 255–265 2005
Seo J, Moon J, Bae J, Yoon K, Sigmund W, Paik U. Control of adhesion force between ceria particles and polishing pad in shallow trench isolation chemical mechanical planarization. J Nanosci Nanotechnol 14: 4351–4356 2014
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Hao CHEN. He received the bachelor degree in measurement techniques and instrumentation in 2013 from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. After then, he is a postgraduate student in the State Key Laboratory of Tribology at the same university. His research interests include measurement of nanomaterials mechanical properties and material removal mechanics in chemical mechanical polishing.
Dan GUO. She received the M.S. degree in engineering mechanics in 1995 from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China and Ph.D degree in engineering mechanics in 1999 from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. She joined the State Key Laboratory of Tribology at Tsinghua University from 1999. Her current position is an associate professor and the deputy director of the laboratory. Her research areas cover the mechanism of interaction among nanoparticles and surface in ultra-smooth surface planarization, and the formation and failure of lubricant film in harsh conditions.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, H., Guo, D., Xie, G. et al. Mechanical model of nanoparticles for material removal in chemical mechanical polishing process. Friction 4, 153–164 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-016-0112-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40544-016-0112-z