Defect-free Fabrication for Single Crystal Silicon Substrate by Chemo-Mechanical Grinding

IC chips are built on Si substrates which must have a high degree of crystalline perfection. The single crystal Si ingot is first sawn into wafers, each of which then undergoes lapping, etching and several steps of polishing to remove the mechanical imperfection and to achieve mirror surfaces. An alternative process has been newly developed by effective use of solid-state reaction between the CeO2 abrasives and Si. Si is removed in a form of amorphous Ce-O-Si at a dry condition. The fabricated ϕ300 mm Si wafers are examined on both surface and subsurface. The results show that 1) the surface is generated by fixed abrasives following grinding dynamics, 2) no defect or mechanical (structural) imperfection is introduced during fabrication and 3) far better quality is achieved than that by CMP.