Silicon Wafer CMP Slurry Using a Hydrolysis Reaction Accelerator with an Amine Functional Group Remarkably Enhances Polishing Rate

Abstract

Recently, as an alternative solution for overcoming the scaling-down limitations of logic devices with design length of less than 3 nm and enhancing DRAM operation performance, 3D heterogeneous packaging technology has been intensively researched, essentially requiring Si wafer polishing at a very high Si polishing rate (500 nm/min) by accelerating the degree of the hydrolysis reaction (i.e., Si-O-H) on the polished Si wafer surface during CMP. Unlike conventional hydrolysis reaction accelerators (i.e., sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide), a novel hydrolysis reaction accelerator with amine functional groups (i.e., 552.8 nm/min for ethylenediamine) surprisingly presented an Si wafer polishing rate >3 times higher than that of conventional hydrolysis reaction accelerators (177.1 nm/min for sodium hydroxide). This remarkable enhancement of the Si wafer polishing rate for ethylenediamine was principally the result of (i) the increased hydrolysis reaction, (ii) the enhanced degree of adsorption of the CMP slurry on the polished Si wafer surface during CMP, and (iii) the decreased electrostatic repulsive force between colloidal silica abrasives and the Si wafer surface. A higher ethylenediamine concentration in the Si wafer CMP slurry led to a higher extent of hydrolysis reaction and degree of adsorption for the slurry and a lower electrostatic repulsive force; thus, a higher ethylenediamine concentration resulted in a higher Si wafer polishing rate. With the aim of achieving further improvements to the Si wafer polishing rates using Si wafer CMP slurry including ethylenediamine, the Si wafer polishing rate increased remarkably and root-squarely with the increasing ethylenediamine concentration.