ORIGINAL PAPER Investigation of Source-Based Scratch Formation During Oxide Chemical Mechanical Planarization Tae-Young Kwon • Byoung-Jun Cho • Manivannan Ramachandran • Ahmed A. Busnaina • Jin-Goo Park Received: 4 September 2012 / Accepted: 27 December 2012 / Published online: 19 February 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract The formation of scratches on silicon dioxide surfaces during chemical mechanical planarization in the semiconductor manufacturing process is a significant con- cern, as it adversely affects yield and reliability. In this study, scratch formation during CMP processing of the oxide surface was examined. The shapes of the resulting scratches were classified into three types: chatter mark type, line type, and rolling type. Chatter mark types were further subdivided into line chatter, broken chatter, and group chatter based on the shape. The effect of three dif- ferent scratch sources (viz., pad debris, dried particles, and diamond particles) on scratch formation was comprehen- sively investigated. Chatter-mark-type scratches are pre- dominant in the presence of agglomerated particles and pad debris. Group chatter marks are caused by the addition of pad debris. Unique scratch formation was observed on the wafer with different scratch sources. In particular, multi- ple-line-type scratches were observed in the presence of diamond particles. Keywords CMP Á Scratch Á Chatter mark Á Pad debris Á Diamond particles 1 Introduction Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) processing allows for global planarization of surface topographies at the desired removal rates [1]. In semiconductor manufac- turing, CMP has been applied for polishing several types of surfaces, including oxides, Cu, W, and others [2]. During polishing, several defects are formed depending on the type of surface being polished. This may be attributed to the effects of various chemicals and particles as well as the pressure exerted on the wafer surface [2, 3]. Defects typi- cally formed during the CMP process include organic residues [3], water marks [4], particle adherence and impingement [5], pits, and scratches [1, 6, 7]. However, the removal of organic residues and water mark formation are trivial in oxide CMP, but other types of defects, such as scratch formation, are critical, as they affect the yield and reliability of the devices [1, 7, 8]. Several possible causes for scratch formation have been proposed in the literature [1]. They can be broadly classi- fied as being due to either processing conditions (pressure, velocity, etc.) or consumables (slurry, pad, conditioner, etc.). CMP consumables can cause surface scratches through such processes as particle agglomeration, release of diamonds from the conditioner, or pad debris. Several reports discussing the effects of these factors on scratch formation have been published [1, 9, 10]. Choi et al. [1] discussed the effect of pressure and velocity on scratch formation on STI patterned wafers. The role of agglom- erated particles on scratch formation has been studied extensively [5, 6]. The presence of agglomerated slurry particles, impurities in slurry production, and dried slurry attached to the pipeline of a slurry supply system are all considered to be major causes of scratching [3, 4]. Pad profile and pad debris also play a critical role in generating T.-Y. Kwon Á M. Ramachandran Á J.-G. Park (&) Department of Materials Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan 426-791, South Korea e-mail: jgpark@hanyang.ac.kr B.-J. Cho Á J.-G. Park Department of Bionano Technology, Hanyang University, Ansan 426-791, South Korea A. A. Busnaina Center for Microcontamination Control, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA 123 Tribol Lett (2013) 50:169–175 DOI 10.1007/s11249-012-0098-2