Post W CMP cleaning without HF cleans

Abstract

In general, HF cleaning is well known to remove the slurry residue particles in W plugs. HF chemistry lifts off the particles by etching the plug during scrubbing and effectively removes particles. It is sometimes impossible to apply HF chemistry on W plug due to the degradation of electrical characteristics of a device. In this paper, a post W CMP cleaning process is proposed to remove residue particles without applying HF chemistry. After W CMP, recessed plugs are created, therefore they easily trap slurry particles during CMP process. These particles in recessed plug are not easy to remove by brush scrubbing when NH4OH chemistry is used for the cleaning because the brush surface can not reach the recessed area of plugs. Higher profiles make the brush contact much more effectively and result in similar particle removal efficiency even in NH4OH cleaning to that in HF brush scrubbing. © The Electrochemical Society.