Effect of alkaline slurry on the electric character of the pattern Cu wafer

For process integration considerations,we will investigate the impact of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) on the electrical characteristics of the pattern Cu wafer.In this paper,we investigate the impacts of the CMP process with two kinds of slurry,one of which is acid slurry of SVTC and the other is FA/O alkaline slurry purchased from Tianjin Jingling Microelectronic Material Limited.Three aspects were investigated:resistance,capacitance and leakage current.The result shows that after polishing by the slurry of FA/O,the resistance is lower than the SVTC.After polishing by the acid slurry and FA/O alkaline slurry,the difference in capacitance is not very large. The values are 0.1 nF and 0.12 nF,respectively.The leakage current of the film polished by the slurry of FA/O is 0.01 nA,which is lower than the slurry of SVTC.The results show that the slurry of FA/O produced less dishing and oxide loss than the slurry of SVTC.     

A new weakly alkaline slurry for copper planarization at a reduced down pressure

This study reports a new weakly alkaline slurry for copper chemical mechanical planarization （CMP）, it can achieve a high planarization efficiency at a reduced down pressure of 1.0 psi. The slurry is studied through the polish rate, planarization, copper surface roughness and stability. The copper polishing experiment result shows that the polish rate can reach 10032 A/rain. From the multi-layers copper CMP test, a good result is obtained, that is a big step height （10870 A） that can be eliminated in just 35 s, and the copper root mean square surface roughness （sq） is very low （〈 1 rim）. Apart from this, compared with the alkaline slurry researched before, it has a good progress on stability of copper polishing rate, stable for 12 h at least. All the results presented here are relevant for further developments in the area of copper CMP.     

The stability of a novel weakly alkaline slurry of copper interconnection CMP for GLSI

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is one of the important machining procedures of multilayered copper interconnection for GLSI,meanwhile polishing slurry is a critical factor for realizing the high polishing performance such as high planarization efficiency,low surface roughness.The effect of slurry components such as abrasive (colloidal silica),complexing agent (glycine),inhibitor (BTA) and oxidizing agent (H2O2) on the stability of the novel weakly alkaline slurry of copper interconnection CMP for GLSI was investigated in this paper.First,the synergistic and competitive relationship of them in a peroxide-based weakly alkaline slurry during the copper CMP process was studied and the stability mechanism was put forward.Then 1 wt％ colloidal silica,2.5 wt％ glycine,200 ppm BTA,20 mL/L H2O2 had been selected as the appropriate concentration to prepare copper slurry,and using such slurry the copper blanket wafer was polished.From the variations of copper removal rate,root-mean square roughness (Sq) value with the setting time,it indicates that the working-life of the novel weakly alkaline slurry can reach more than 7 days,which satisfies the requirement of microelectronics further development.     

碱性阻挡层CMP后铜布线粗糙度的影响机理分析

The surface roughness seriously affects the performance of devices after barrier CMP. Due to the high surface roughness of copper line, the local resistance of a device will be high when working, then the copper line will overheat prompting the generation of electro-migration and the circuit will lose efficacy. Reducing the surface roughness of the copper line in barrier CMP is still an important research topic. The main factors influencing the surface roughness of copper line in alkaline barrier slurry are analyzed in the paper. Aimed at influencing the law on the surface roughness of copper line, using a new type of alkaline barrier slurry with a different p H of the chelating agent and changing the content of non-ionic surfactant, we then analyze the influencing law both on the surface roughness of copper line, and the influence mechanism. The experimental results show that with a chelating agent with a low p H value in the barrier slurry, the surface roughness of the copper line is 1.03 nm and it is the lowest in all of the barrier slurries, and with the increase of non-ionic surfactant concentration, the surface roughness of copper line is reduced to 0.43 nm, meeting the demand of further development of integrated circuits.     

低磨料浓度的碱性铜抛光液平坦化性能的研究

A novel alkaline copper slurry that possesses a relatively high planarization performance is investigated under a low abrasive concentration.Based on the action mechanism of CMP,the feasibility of using one type of slurry in copper bulk elimination process and residual copper elimination process,with different process parameters,was analyzed.In addition,we investigated the regular change of abrasive concentration effect on copper and tantalum removal rate and within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) in CMP process.When the abrasive concentration is 3 wt%,in bulk elimination process,the copper removal rate achieves 6125 °/min,while WIWNU is 3.5%,simultaneously.In residual copper elimination process,the copper removal rate is approximately 2700°/min,while WIWNU is 2.8%.Nevertheless,the tantalum removal rate is 0 °/min,which indicates that barrier layer isn’t eliminated in residual copper elimination process.The planarization experimental results show that an excellent planarization performance is obtained with a relatively high copper removal rate in bulk elimination process.Meanwhile,after residual copper elimination process,the dishing value increased inconspicuously,in a controllable range,and the wafer surface roughness is only 0.326 nm(sq < 1 nm) after polishing.By comparison,the planarization performance and surface quality of alkaline slurry show almost no major differences with two kinds of commercial acid slurries after polishing.All experimental results are conducive to research and improvement of alkaline slurry in the future.     

Electrochemical investigation of copper chemical mechanical planarization in alkaline slurry without an inhibitor

This work investigates the static corrosion and removal rates of copper as functions of H202 and FA/OIIconcentration, and uses DC electrochemical measurements such as open circuit potential （OCP）, Tafel ana- lysis, as well as cyclic voltammetry （CV） to study HaOa and FA/OIIdependent surface reactions of Cu coupon electrode in alkaline slurry without an inhibitor. An atomic force microscopy （AFM） technique is also used to measure the surface roughness and surface morphology of copper in static corrosion and polishing conditions. It is shown that 0.5 vol.% H202 should be the primary choice to achieve high material removal rate. The electro- chemical results reveal that the addition of FA/O II can dissolve partial oxide film to accelerate the electrochemical anodic reactions and make the oxide layer porous, so that the structurally weak oxide film can be easily removed by mechanical abrasion. The variation of surface roughness and morphology of copper under static conditions is consistent with and provides further support for the reaction mechanisms proposed in the context of DC electro- chemical measurements. In addition, in the presence of H202, 3 vol.% FA/O II may be significantly effective from a surface roughness perspective to obtain a relatively flat copper surface in chemical mechanical planarization （CMP） process.     

盐酸胍在阻挡层化学机械抛光中对速率选择性及表面形貌的影响

We propose an alkaline barrier slurry containing guanidine hydrochloride（GH） and hydrogen peroxide.The slurry does not contain any corrosion inhibitors, such as benzotriazole（BTA）. 3-inch samples of tantalum copper and oxide were polished to observe the removal rate. The effect of GH on removal rate selectivity along withhydrogenperoxidewasinvestigatedbycomparingslurrycontainingGHandH2O2withslurrycontainingonly GH. Details about the tantalum polishing mechanism in an alkaline guanidine-based slurry and the electrochemical reactions are discussed. The results show that guanidine hydrochloride can increase the tantalum polishing rate and the selectivity of copper and barrier materials. The variation of the dishing and wire line resistance with the polishing time was measured. The dishing value after a 300 mm pattern wafer polishing suggests that the slurry has an effective performance in topography modification. The result obtained from the copper wire line resistance test reveals that the wire line in the trench has a low copper loss.     

Investigation of aluminum gate CMP in a novel alkaline solution

Beyond 45 nm, due to the superior CMP performance requirements with the metal gate of aluminum in the advanced CMOS process, a novel alkaline slurry for an aluminum gate CMP with poly-amine alkali slurry is investigated. The aluminum gate CMP under alkaline conditions has two steps:stock polishing and fine polishing. A controllable removal rate, the uniformity of aluminum gate and low corrosion are the key challenges for the alkaline polishing slurry of the aluminum gate CMP. This work utilizes the complexation-soluble function of FA/O Ⅱ and the preference adsorption mechanism of FA/O Ⅰ nonionic surfactant to improve the uniformity of the surface chemistry function with the electrochemical corrosion research, such as OCP-TIME curves, Tafel curves and AC impedance. The result is that the stock polishing slurry (with SiO₂ abrasive) contains 1 wt.% H₂O₂ ,0.5 wt.% FA/O Ⅱ and 1.0 wt.% FA/O Ⅰ nonionic surfactant. For a fine polishing process, 1.5 wt.% H₂O₂ , 0.4 wt.% FA/O Ⅱ and 2.0 wt.% FA/O Ⅰ nonionic surfactant are added. The polishing experiments show that the removal rates are 3000±50 Å/min and 1600±60 Å/min, respectively. The surface roughnesses are 2.05±0.128 nm and 1.59±0.081 nm, respectively. A combination of the functions of FA/O Ⅱ and FA/O Ⅰ nonionic surfactant obtains a controllable removal rate and a better surface roughness in alkaline solution.     

基于化学机械动力学的碱性铜抛光液平坦化机理研究

The planarization mechanism of alkaline copper slurry is studied in the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process from the perspective of chemical mechanical kinetics.Different from the international dominant acidic copper slurry,the copper slurry used in this research adopted the way of alkaline technology based on complexation. According to the passivation property of copper in alkaline conditions,the protection of copper film at the concave position on a copper pattern wafer surface can be achieved without the corrosion inhibitors such as benzotriazole(BTA),by which the problems caused by BTA can be avoided.Through the experiments and theories research,the chemical mechanical kinetics theory of copper removal in alkaline CMP conditions was proposed. Based on the chemical mechanical kinetics theory,the planarization mechanism of alkaline copper slurry was established. In alkaline CMP conditions,the complexation reaction between chelating agent and copper ions needs to break through the reaction barrier.The kinetic energy at the concave position should be lower than the complexation reaction barrier,which is the key to achieve planarization.     

TiO2 薄膜CMP表面粗糙度的研究

Abstract： Surface roughness by peaks and depressions on the surface of titanium dioxide （TiO2） thin film, which was widely used for an antireflection coating of optical systems, caused the extinction coefficient increase and affected the properties of optical system. Chemical mechanical polishing （CMP） is a very important method for surface smoothing. In this polishing experiment, we used self-formulated weakly alkaline slurry. Other process parameters were working pressure, slurry flow rate, head speed, and platen speed. In order to get the best surface roughness （1.16 A, the scanned area was 10 × 10 μm2） and a higher polishing rate （60.8 nm/min）, the optimal parameters were： pressure, 1 psi; slurry flow rate, 250 mL/min; polishing head speed, 80 rpm; platen speed, 87 rpm.     

Development of the readout system for waveguide multilayer optical card

Waveguide multilayer optical card （WMOC） is a novel storage device of three-dimensional optical information. An advanced readout system fitting for the WMOC is introduced in this paper. The hardware mainly consists of the light source for reading, WMOC, motorized stages addressing unit, microscope imaging unit, CCD detecting unit and PC controlling ＆ processing unit. The movement of the precision motorized stage is controlled by the computer through Visual Basic （VB） language in software. A control panel is also designed to get the layer address and the page address through which the position of the motorized stages can be changed. The WMOC readout system is easy to manage and the readout result is directly displayed on computer monitor.     

Nanoimprint Lithography -A Next Generation High Volume Lithography Technique

IntroductionNanoimprint Lithography is a well-acknowl-edged low cost, high resolution, large area pattern-ing process. It includes the most promising methods,high-pressure hot embossing lithography (HEL) [2],UV-cured imprinting (UV-NIL) [3] and micro contactprinting (m-CP, MCP) [4]. Curing of the imprintedstructures is either done by subsequent UV-lightexposure in the case of UV-NIL or by cooling downbelow the glass transition temperature of the ther-moplastic material in case of HEL…     

Collinear phase-matching study of terahertz-wave generation via difference frequency mixed in GaAs and Inp

The collinearly phase-matching condition of terahertz-wave generation via difference frequency mixed in GaAs and InP is theoretically studied. In collinear phase-matching, the optimum phase-matching wave hands of these two crystals are calculated. The optimum phase-matching wave bands in GaAs and lnP are 0.95-1.38μm and 0.7-0.96μm respectively. The influence of the wavelength choice of the pump wave on the coherent length in THz-wave tuning is also discussed. The influence of the temperature alteration on the phase-matching and the temperature tuning properties in GaAs crystal are calculated and analyzed. It can serve for the following experiments as a theoretical evidence and a reference as well.     

Effects of the alloy compositions on the phonon-polaritons in ternary mixed crystals

Composition dependence of bulk and surface phonon-polaritons in ternary mixed crystals are studied in the framework of the modified random-element-isodisplacement model and the Bom-Huang approximation. The numerical results for Several Ⅱ - Ⅵ and Ⅲ- Ⅴ compound systems are performed, and the polariton frequencies as functions of the compositions for ternary mixed crystals AlxGa1-xAs, GaPxAS1-x, ZnSxSe1-x, GaAsxSb1-x, GaxIn1-xP, and ZnxCd1-xS as examples are given and discussed. The results show that the dependence of the energies of two branches of bulk phonon-polaritons which have phonon-like characteristics, and surface phonon-polaritons on the compositions of ternary mixed crystals are nonlinear and different from those of the corresponding binary systems.     

Influence of PVK ： NPB hole transporting layer on the characteristics of organic light-emitting devices

A doping system consisting of NPB and PVK is employed as a composite hole transporting layer （CHTL）. By adjusting the component ratio of the doping system, a series of devices with different concentration proportion of PVK ： NPB are constracted. The result shows that doping concentration of NPB enhances the competence of hole transporting ability, and modifies the recombination region of charge as well as affects the surface morphology of doped film. Optimum device with a maximum brightness of 7852 cd/m^2 and a power efficiency of 1.75 lm/W has been obtained by choosing a concentration proportion of PVK ： NPB at 1：3.     

New insert layer structure OLEDs

An insert layer structure organic electroluminescent device（OLED） based on a new luminescent material （Zn（salen）） is fabricated. The configuration of the device is ITO/CuPc/NPD/Zn（salen）/Liq/LiF/A1/CuPc/NPD/Zn（salen）/Liq/LiF/A1. Effective insert electrode layers comprising LiF（1nm）/Al（5 nm） are used as a single semitransparent mirror, and bilayer cathode LiF（1 nm）/A1（100 nm） is used as a reflecting mirror. The two mirrors form a Fabry-Perot microcavity and two emissive units. The maximum brightness and luminous efficiency reach 674 cd/m^2 and 2.652 cd/A, respectively, which are 2.1 and 3.7 times higher than the conventional device, respectively. The superior brightness and luminous efficiency over conventional single-unit devices are attributed to microcavity effect.     

Analysis of error performance on Turbo coded FDPIM

Due to variable symbol length of digital pulse interval modulation（DPIM）, it is difficult to analyze the error performances of Turbo coded DPIM. To solve this problem, a fixed-length digital pulse interval modulation（FDPIM） method is provided. The FDPIM modulation structure is introduced. The packet error rates of uncoded FDPIM are analyzed and compared with that of DPIM. Bit error rates of Turbo coded FDPIM are simulated based on three kinds of analytical models under weak turbulence channel. The results show that packet error rate of uncoded FDPIM is inferior to that of uncoded DPIM. However, FDPIM is easy to be implemented and easy to be combined, with Turbo code for soft-decision because of its fixed length. Besides, the introduction of Turbo code in this modulation can decrease the average power about 10 dBm, which means that it can improve the error performance of the system effectively.     

A method for calculating the center position of collimated light

It is a key problem to accurately calculate beam spots＇ center of measuring the warp by using a collimated laser. A new method, named double geometrical center method （DGCM）, is put forward for the first time. In this method, a plane wave perpendicularly irradiates an aperture stop, and a charge couple device （CCD） is employed to receive the diffraction-beam spots, then the geometrical centers of the fast and the second diffraction-beam spots are calculated respectively, and their mean value is regarded as the center of datum beam. In face of such adverse instances as laser intension distributing defectively, part of the image being saturated, this method can still work well. What＇s more, this method can detect whether an unacceptable error exits in the courses of image receiving, processing and calculating. The experimental results indicate the precision of this method is high.     

Resolution Enhancement Technology:Integrated Process Solutions using OPC

DUV lithography, using the 248 nm wavelength, is a viable manufacturing option for devices with features at 130 nm and less. Given the low kl value of the lithography, integrated process development is a necessary method for achieving acceptable process latitude. The application of assist features for rule based OPC requires the simultaneous optimization of the mask, illumination optics and the resist.Described in this paper are the details involved in optimizing each of these aspects for line and space imaging.A reference pitch is first chosen to determine how the optics will be set. The ideal sigma setting is determined by a simple geometrically derived expression. The inner and outer machine settings are determined, in turn,with the simulation of a figure of merit. The maximum value of the response surface of this FOM occurs at the optimal sigma settings. Experimental confirmation of this is shown in the paper.Assist features are used to modify the aerial image of the more isolated images on the mask. The effect that the diffraction of the scattering bars (SBs) has on the image intensity distribution is explained. Rules for determining the size and placement of SBs are also given.Resist is optimized for use with off-axis illumination and assist features. A general explanation of the material' s effect is discussed along with the affect on the through-pitch bias. The paper culminates with the showing of the lithographic results from the fully optimized system.     

Preparation and Characterization of TaN ALD Precursors

High purity organic-tantalum precursors for thin film ALD TaN were synthesized and characterized.Vapor pressure and thermal stability of these precursors were studied.From the vapor pressure analysis,it was found that TBTEMT has a higher vapor pressure than any other published liquid TaN precursor,including TBTDET,TAITMATA,and IPTDET.Thermal stability of the alkyl groups on the precursors was investigated using a 1H NMR technique.The results indicated that the tertbutylimino group is the most stable group on TBTDET and TBTEMT as compared to the dialkylamido groups.Thermal stability of TaN precursors decreased in the following order:TBTDET ＞ PDMAT ＞ TBTEMT.In conclusion,precursor vapor pressure and thermal stability were tuned by making slight variations in the ligand sphere around the metal center.