SBIR Phase II: Chemical Mechanical Planarization pad with controlled micro features for sub 7nm semiconductor technology

SBIR 第二阶段：具有受控微观特征的化学机械平坦化垫，适用于 7 纳米以下半导体技术

• 批准号: 1951211
• 负责人: Goo Youn Kim
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: SMART PAD LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-04-15 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1951211&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Chemical; Mechanical

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to help semiconductor chipmakers overcome manufacturing challenges in Chemical Mechanical Planarization/Polishing (CMP) processes. CMP processes enable cutting-edge manufacturing; currently chipmakers often face scaling difficulties as the size of the smallest features continues to decrease, increasing the impact of CMP imperfections and resulting in higher defect rates. The proposed polishing process enables chip fabricators to reduce these CMP imperfections by 50% and improve performance, while reducing costs and increasing process throughput. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will improve CMP processes with innovative polishing pads. Conventional polishing pads have randomly distributed micropores inside of the pads and typically generate around 1% real contact area between the pad asperities and wafer during polishing. This leads to unwanted polishing results, such as dishing/erosion and scratch defects on chip patterns due to the stress concentration on asperities. Conventional pads require a pad conditioning process to regenerate the asperities on the pad surface. The polishing processes developed under this project use microfabrication technologies to control micro-features on the pad surface. Therefore, the contact area between the pad and wafer is customizable and controllable up to 30%. This will improve the polishing performance precision and consistency, leading to fewer defects. As the micro-features on the soft sub-pad are independent, the conformity of the pad increases and the pressure on the wafer is evenly distributed across the wafer surface. This will significantly improve the chip-level planarization and wafer-level uniformity, and reduce the pad wear. As a result, the pad conditioning process can be minimized or even eliminated from the CMP process.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该小型企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是帮助半导体芯片制造商克服化学机械平坦化/抛光 (CMP) 工艺中的制造挑战。 CMP 工艺实现尖端制造；目前，随着最小特征的尺寸不断减小，芯片制造商经常面临缩放困难，从而增加了 CMP 缺陷的影响并导致更高的缺陷率。所提出的抛光工艺使芯片制造商能够将这些 CMP 缺陷减少 50% 并提高性能，同时降低成本并提高工艺产量。 这个小型企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第二阶段项目将通过创新的抛光垫改进 CMP 工艺。传统的抛光垫内部具有随机分布的微孔，并且在抛光过程中通常在垫凹凸和晶片之间产生约 1% 的实际接触面积。这会导致不必要的抛光结果，例如由于粗糙度上的应力集中而导致芯片图案上的凹陷/侵蚀和划痕缺陷。传统的抛光垫需要抛光垫修整过程来重新生成抛光垫表面上的凹凸不平。该项目开发的抛光工艺采用微加工技术来控制抛光垫表面的微观特征。因此，焊盘和晶圆之间的接触面积可定制且可控，最高可达30%。这将提高抛光性能的精度和一致性，从而减少缺陷。由于软子垫上的微观特征是独立的，因此垫的一致性增加，并且晶圆上的压力均匀地分布在晶圆表面上。这将显着提高芯片级平坦化和晶圆级均匀性，并减少焊盘磨损。 因此，可以最大限度地减少甚至从 CMP 工艺中消除抛光垫调节工艺。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。