Control of Adhesion Force Between Ceria Particles and Polishing Pad in Shallow Trench Isolation Chemical Mechanical Planarization

Abstract

The adhesion force between ceria and polyurethane (PU) pad was controlled to remove the step height from cell region to peripheral region during Shallow Trench Isolation Chemical Mechanical Planarization (STI-CMP) for NAND flash. Picolinic acid was found to be adsorbed on ceria particles at pH 4.5 following a Langmuir isotherm with the maximum adsorbed amount of 0.36 mg/m(2). The ceria suspension with full surface coverage of picolinic acid showed a threefold increase in the number of adhered ceria particles on the PU pad over non-coated ceria particles. It was shown that the coverage percent of picolinic acid on ceria corresponds well with the amount percent of adsorbed ceria on PU pad. The change in adsorbed particles was directly reflected in the CMP polishing process where significant improvements were achieved. Particularly, convex areas on the chip experienced higher friction force from the attached abrasives on the PU pad than concave areas. As a result, the convex areas have increased removal rate of step height compared to the ceria suspension without picolinic acid. The changing profiles of convex areas are reported during the step height reduction as a function of polishing time.