Control methods for the chemical-mechanical polishing process in shallow trench isolation

Author

Wu, Yutong ; Gilhooly, Jim ; Philips, Brett

Author_Institution

Microelectron. Div., IBM Corp., Essex Junction, VT, USA

fYear

1998

fDate

23-25 Sep 1998

Firstpage

66

Lastpage

70

Abstract

Process control of shallow trench isolation (STI) chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) strongly relies on thickness measurements of various films. The control scheme based on send-ahead (SAHD) wafers with a fixed post-CMP target has low cost, but it neglects process variations before and during STI CMP. An “interactive” control method, based on extensive measurements, compensates for many of the variations in STI CMP, and eliminates the problem of underpolishing. However, this method comes with a high cost for multiple measurement steps. This paper compares fixed-target planarization to the interactive STI control methodology

Keywords

chemical mechanical polishing; integrated circuit measurement; integrated circuit yield; isolation technology; process control; thickness measurement; STI CMP; STI CMP variations; chemical-mechanical polishing; chemical-mechanical polishing process; control scheme; control scheme cost; film thickness measurements; fixed post-CMP target; fixed-target planarization; interactive STI control methodology; interactive control method; measurements; multiple measurement steps; process control; process control methods; process variations; send-ahead wafers; shallow trench isolation; shallow trench isolation chemical-mechanical polishing; underpolishing; Chemical processes; Costs; Etching; Planarization; Process control; Resists; Semiconductor device modeling; Semiconductor films; Silicon; Thickness measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference and Workshop, 1998. 1998 IEEE/SEMI

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

ISSN

1078-8743

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4380-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ASMC.1998.731396

Filename

731396