Abrasive properties of nano silica particles prepared by a sol–gel method for polishing silicon wafers

Abrasive properties of cocoon shaped silica particles fabricated by a sol–gel method have been studied. Since silicon wafers are polished with slurry by the mechanism of Chemical Mechanical Polishing, polishing rates may depend on various chemical and mechanical factors, such as particle concentration in slurry, slurry pH and kinds of basic compounds for controlling the slurry pH. The silicon wafer was polished by slurry continuously fed on a pad, and the polishing rate was estimated as a weight loss of the wafer. For studying the effects of the various factors on the rate, the slurries were prepared by adding the silica particles, basic compounds or salts, and the polishing rates of the slurry were measured. The effects of the various factors were made clear as follows: For the effect of particle concentration, the rates increased with increasing of the concentrations up to 1.0 wt.%. And for the effect of the slurry pH, slurries added basic compounds, such as KOH, NaOH, ammonia, were tested, and it was found that increasing of the slurry pH brought increases of the polishing rates. KOH-containing slurry of pH 13.2 had the fastest rate, 3.6 times as fast as the standard slurry with pH 9.4. For the effect of the adding of salts, it was indicated that the salts, such as KCl, NaCl, NH₄Cl, NaNO₃ and K₂SO₄ increased the polishing rates, and that KCl-containing slurry of 0.36 mol/l had the highest polishing rate, 3.4 times as fast as that of the standard slurry containing no salts.     

Contamination inspection on wafer with oxide or nitride film by using a vibrating contact potential difference probe

Contamination inspection on the oxide and nitride films deposited on silicon wafer surface by using vibrating contact potential difference (CPD) probe is presented in this paper. Contaminants induce the variation of the CPD between a dielectric layer and the probe material. However, the screening effect of the charges on the surface, interface and in the dielectric layer overwhelms the contamination signals when using the vibrating CPD monitor. This obstacle can be overcome using the signal characteristic diagnosis by which most of the charge signals can be filtered out. The validity of this approach was verified by means of the vapor phase decomposition coupling with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (VPD‐ICP‐MS), and we found that the filtrated contamination signals were correlated closely with the metallic concentration. Moreover, the proper annealing process could enhance the response signals of contaminants, especially for Ni and Cu, in the nitride film monitoring. This inspection method was effectively applied in the trace metallic contamination routine monitor and the contamination source tracing of the furnace tools. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Utilization of TXRF analytical technique in order to improve front-end semiconductor processing

In this paper, we summarize how the introduction of in-line TXRF monitoring provides detailed analytical information on aluminum, titanium and molybdenum contamination levels in order to improve several process steps from front-end processing, minimize product yield loss and make it possible to successfully manufacture multiple products and process geometries in the same fabrication platform.     

Fracture mechanics analysis on Smart-Cut~ technology.Part 1:Effects of stiffening wafer and defect interaction

In the present paper,continuum fracture mecha-nics is used to analyze the Smart-Cut process,a recentlyestablished ion cut technology which enables highly efficientfabrication of various silicon-on-insulator(SOI)wafers ofhigh uniformity in thickness.Using integral transform andCauchy singular integral equation methods,the mode-I andmode-Ⅱ stress intensity factors,energy release rate,and crackopening displacements are derived in order to examine seve-ral important fracture mechanisms involved in the Smart...     

晶圆键合和激光剥离工艺对GaN基垂直结构发光二极管芯片残余应力的影响

GaN基发光二极管(LED)中的残余应力状态对器件的性能和稳定性有很大影响. 通过使用三种不同的键合衬底(Al₂O₃衬底, CuW衬底和Si衬底)以及改变键合温度(290 ℃, 320 ℃, 350 ℃和380 ℃), 并且使用不同的激光能量密度(875, 945和1015 mJ·cm^-2) 进行激光剥离, 制备了不同应力状态的GaN基LED器件. 对不同条件下GaN LED进行弯曲度、Raman 散射谱测试. 实验结果表明, 垂直结构LED中的残余应力的状态是键合衬底和键合金属共同作用的结果, 而键合温度影响着垂直结构LED中的残余应力的大小. 激光剥离过程中, 一定能量密度下激光剥离工艺一般不会对芯片中的残余应力造成影响, 但是如果该工艺对GaN 层造成了微裂缝, 则会在一定程度上起到释放残余应力的作用. 使用Si衬底键合后, 外延蓝宝石衬底翘曲变大, 对应制备的GaN基垂直结构 LED中的残余应力为张应力, 并且随着键合温度的上升而变大; 而Al₂O₃和CuW衬底制备的LED中的残余应力为压应力, 但使用Al₂O₃衬底键合制备的LED中压应力随键合温度上升而一定程度变大, CuW 衬底制备的LED中压应力随键合温度上升而下降.     

Method and mechanism of vapor phase treatment–total reflection X-ray fluorescence for trace element analysis on silicon wafer surface

Vapor phase treatment (VPT) is a pretreatment with hydrofluoric acid vapor to raise the sensitivity of total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (TXRF) for trace metal analysis on silicon wafers. The International Organization for Standardization/Technical Committee 201/Working Group 2 (ISO/TC201/WG2) has been investigating the method to analyze 10⁹ atoms/cm² level of metallic contamination on the silicon wafer surface. Though VPT can enhance the TXRF signal intensity from the metallic contamination, it has turned out that the magnitude of the enhancement varies with the type of methods and the process conditions. In this study, approaches to increase TXRF intensity by VPT are investigated using a fuming chamber in an automated VPD instrument. Higher signal intensity can be obtained when condensation is formed on the sample surface in a humidifying atmosphere and with a decreasing stage temperature. Surface observations with SEM and AFM show that particles with ~ 4 μm in diameter are formed and unexpectedly they are dented from the top surface level.     

Coupling of an electrodialyzer with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for the on-line determination of trace impurities in silicon wafers after surface metal extraction

Understanding the properties that determine the distribution and behavior of trace impurities in Si wafers is critical to defining and controlling the performance, reliability, and yields of integrated microelectronic devices. It remains, however, an intrinsically difficult task to determine trace impurities in Si because of the minute concentrations and extremely high levels of matrix involved. In this study, we used an electrodialyzer for the simultaneous on-line removal of the silicate and acid matrices through the neutralization of the excessive hydrogen ion and selectively separation of acid and silicate ions by the combination of electrode reaction as a source of hydroxide ions with the anion exchange membrane separation. To retain the analyte ions in the sample stream, we found that the presence of moderate amounts of nitric acid and hydrazine were necessary to improve the retention efficiency, not only for Zn²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Co²⁺ ions but also for CrO₄²⁻ ion. Under the optimized conditions, the interference that resulted from the sample matrix was suppressed significantly to provide satisfactory analytical signals. The precision of this method was ca. 5% when we used an electrodialyzer equipped with an anion exchange membrane to remove the sample matrix prior to performing inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS); the good agreement between the data obtained using our proposed method and those obtained using a batchwise wet chemical technique confirmed its accuracy. Our method permits the determination of Zn, Ni, Cu, Co, and Cr in Si wafers at detection limits within the range from 2.2 × 10¹⁵ to 9.0 × 10¹⁵ atoms cm⁻³.     

Effect of Wafer Temperature on High Aspect Ratio Hardmask Etching

Fluorocarbon-based chemistries were used to study the effect of wafer temperature on the etch of high aspect ratio hardmasks composed of SiO₂ and SiN_x layers. It is found that etch stop can occur easily at high temperature. The rate of polymer deposition plays an important role in etch stop. The etching rates were found to be inversely proportional to the wafer temperature. Such a relation indicates a negative activation energy in the rate expression of hardmask etching using fluorocarbon plasma. It also implies that in hardmask etching, complicated gas-surface, but not simple one-step, reactions are involved. Different wafer surface temperature can provide different degree of activation for etching reactions. Analysis of etching rate and optical emission trends indicates that CF_x may contribute more than F does in the etch of SiO₂ and SiN_x, since polymer-rich etching chemistries were used. Based on the temperature-dependent etching rate, we propose a reaction mechanism for the reaction trends observed in hardmask etching.     

Determination of trace iron in indium phosphide wafer by on-line matrix separation and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

A method for the determination of iron in indium phosphide (InP) wafer is proposed. In the present experiment, an on-line matrix separation system using an ion exchange column was combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for the determination of ng g⁻¹ level of iron. In the on-line matrix separation, indium and iron in the sample solution was passed through a strongly-basic anion exchange resin column with the 9 M HCl carrier solution, where indium was eluted from the column and iron was adsorbed on it. Then, iron was eluted with the carrier solution of 0.3 M HCl containing 1 ng ml⁻¹ cobalt, and it was directly introduced into the ICP-MS nebulizer. In ICP-MS measurement, cobalt in the carrier solution was used as an internal standard to correct the change in sensitivity due to matrix effect, and the peak area integration was performed to quantify iron and cobalt in the integration time range of 20-60 s from the start of the cobalt solution flow. The detection limit (3σ) for iron was 3 ng g⁻¹, and the recoveries for iron in the 0.8, 2.4, and 8.0% indium solutions were almost 100%. The method was applied to the determination of iron in commercially available iron-doped InP wafers. The obtained results for InP wafer samples with the high iron concentration were in good agreement with those obtained by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS).     

硅器件晶片的红外吸收研究

用红外吸收光谱法对硅器件晶片的金属杂质玷污问题,热氧化SiO2膜的质量状况和注氮SOI样品的结构进行分析,得到了有助于优选晶片及其与工艺有关的信息。检测方法是非破坏性的,适合硅材料与器件生产厂用于有关工艺的质量控制。