Particle scale modeling of material removal and surface roughness in chemical mechanical polishing

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is widely adopted in producing excellent local and global planarization of microelectronic devices. It has been demonstrated experimentally that the polishing performance is a result of the synergistic effect of both the chemicals and the particles involved in CMP. However, the fundamental mechanisms of material removal and the interactions of the chemical and mechanical effects are not well understood. A comprehensive model for CMP was developed taking into account both the chemical and mechanical effects for slurries with a given particle size distribution. The model developed (PERC II) is based on a previously developed model (PERC I). The chemical aspect is attributed to the chemical modification of the surface layer due to slurry chemistry, whereas the mechanical aspect is incorporated by indentation of particles into the modified layer and the substrate depending on the operating conditions. In this study, the effects of particle size and pad asperity distributions are included in the model.; The contact area of pad with wafer was measured in dry and wet conditions in different pH solutions using optical microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy respectively. Pad surface mechanical properties in dry and wet states were also investigated using atomic force microscopy. The contact area results obtained were utilized in modeling to estimate the pad modulus leading to pad-wafer contact stress distribution.; The predictions of the model show a reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The model is validated for oxide and metal CMP systems. The PERC II model not only predicts the overall removal rate, but also the surface roughness of the polished wafer in selected systems. The developed model can be used to optimize the current CMP systems and provide insights into future CMP endeavors.