Abstract
This paper studies fine particles in slurry on chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process for SiO_2 layer. The material removal phenomena in CMP process is not revealed perfectly yet. Therefore, the function of fine particles in slurry acting on the wafer surface have not explained. It is said that material removal phenomena in oxide wafer CMP process was considered conventionally that fine particles in slurry are thrusted into wafer surface with polishing pad, and then scratch and remove wafer material as small fragments. However, this assumption has a lot of contradictions. In addition it is not clear that the function of fine particles in slurry acting on the wafer surface. In this study, we focused on basic function of particles in slurry. First, we attempted to observe material removal phenomena with AFM in the way that AFM stylus tip was presumed as SiO_2 particle. Next, fine particles in slurry before and after CMP were obserbed by super- dynamic light scattering spectrophotometer and transmission electron microscope (TEM).
