Principles of Dielectric Chemical Mechanical Planarization

Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) processes in semiconductor manufacturing are developed based on the quality, efficiency and cost of the proposed process. CMP applications in semiconductor manufacturing are highly dependent on consumables (i.e., polishing slurries, pads and diamond discs) quality. Coupling this with the pace of technology turn over as defined by Moore s Law, material characterization and process impacts are critical in providing manufacturer s with the greatest level of studied and known effects to an existing process in order to improve the efficiency of the path finding and development stages of process creation. This thesis presents a series of studies based on oxide and tungsten planarization processes geared towards achieving the aforementioned goals. The capstone of this work is a novel and most accurate model of material removal rate based on a kinetic Langmuir-Hinshelwood removal rate model. The series of studies shown in this work also focus on the parametric characterization of variations to the CMP process as would be seen from a thermal, kinetic and tribological aspects of the process.