Materials Letters 58 (2004) 2091 – 2095

www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet

Effects of slurry filter size on the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP)

defect density
Yong-Jin Seo a,*, Sang-Yong Kim b, Yeon-Ok Choi c, Yong-Taek Oh c, Woo-Sun Lee c
a
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Daebul University, 72, Sanho, Samho, Youngam, Chonnam-Do 526-702, South Korea
b
MIT CMP Team, ANAM Semiconductor Co., INC., Kyunggi-do 420-712, South Korea
c
Department of Electrical Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju 501-759, South Korea

Received 28 July 2003; received in revised form 27 December 2003; accepted 6 January 2004

Available online 13 February 2004

Abstract

The chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process has been widely used to planarize dielectric layer, to be applied to integrated circuits for
deep submicron technology. Despite increased use of CMP process, it is difficult to accomplish defect-free global planarization in interlayer
dielectrics (ILD). Especially, defects like microscratches lead to severe circuit failure and affect yield. CMP slurries sometimes contain particles
exceeding 1.0 Am size, which can cause microscratch on a wafer surface. The large-sized particles in these slurries may be caused by particle
agglomeration in slurry supply line. Filtration has been recommended in oxide CMP process in order to reduce these defects. In this work, we
have systematically studied the effects of filtration and the defect distribution as a function of polished wafer counts by using various filters in the
ILD – CMP process. Filter installation in CMP polisher effectively reduced the defect density after ILD – CMP process. The experimental results
show that the slurry filter plays an important role in determining the consumable pad lifetime. Furthermore, the filter lifetime is dominated by the
defect counts. We have concluded that the degree of generated defects is determined by slurry filter lifetime.
D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Solidification; Defects; Multilayer structure; Chemical mechanical polishing; Point of use; Slurry filter; Pad lifetime

1. Introduction
Because an increased interconnection layer and fine con-
trol of interconnection pattern are needed for high speed and
packing density, the technology of the multilayer intercon-
nection has become more important for the deep submicron
process [1]. Especially in the technology below 0.35 Am, a
wide range of global planarization techniques [2] is required
to secure a sufficient depth of focus (DOF) with the process
margin for fine pattern formation in the photolithography
technology. Therefore, the chemical mechanical polishing
(CMP) technology has been widely used as the essential
process for ultralarge-scale integrated circuits (ULSIs) appli-
cations [3], but there are many problems to be solved to obtain
a defect-free global planarization, e.g., nitride residues and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-61-469-1260; fax: +82-61-469-
1260.
E-mail address: syj@mail.daebul.ac.kr (Y.-J. Seo).
torn oxides produced after the CMP process and the various
contaminations generated by the post-CMP cleaning process
[4]. Especially, device failure and yield reduction due to
microscratches occurring during the CMP process seriously
affect the manufacturing process of semiconductor chips [5]
because large abrasive particles, above 1.0 Am, contained in
the CMP slurry cause many microscratches on the wafer
surface. In addition, many particles, solidified in the slurry
supply line, seriously affect the device lifetime. Accordingly,
the lifetime can be improved by using a slurry filter during the
oxide CMP process or by flushing the slurry pipeline peri-
odically in order to prevent the agglomeration of slurry [6].
This study analyzes the defect density according to the
filter size and the correlation between the polished wafer
counts and the defect density according to the time of the
CMP process after installing the point of use (POU) slurry
filter in the slurry supply line of CMP polishing system in
order to decrease the microscratches in the interlayer dielec-
trics (ILD) – CMP process. The results clearly show the
advantages of using a slurry filter.

0167-577X/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2004.01.012
2092 Y.-J. Seo et al. / Materials Letters 58 (2004) 2091–2095

2. Experiment

Fig. 1a schematically shows the CMP process system

used in this experiment. The system is composed of main
slurry supply system, a main filter, and a POU filter. Fig. 1b
approximately shows the IPEC AVANTI-472 CMP polisher
(SpeedFam, USA), which installs a depth-type POU filter
into the slurry supply system of CMP equipment. Fig. 1c
shows a schematic diagram of POU filter used to remove
large-sized abrasive particles at the slurry inlet of filter and
to remove smaller-sized particles through continuous filtra-

Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of IPEC AVANTI-472 CMP processing system:

(a) flowchart of CMP system; (b) CMP polisher using filter; (c) depth-type
POU filter.

Fig. 3. Microscratch photograph of wafer surface using AIT microscope: (a)

Fig. 2. Map of wafer surface observed by KLA 2135 system. metal bridge; (b) stringer.
 Y.-J. Seo et al. / Materials Letters 58 (2004) 2091–2095
Fig. 4. Particle size distribution before and after filtering.
tion so that only slurry particles smaller than 0.5 Am can
pass at the final outlet.
The polishing pad was a stack-type double-pad of IC-
1000/Suba-IV structure from RODEL and the KOH-based
SiO2 slurry with a pH of 10– 11, and a solid content of 11%
was used. The patterned wafers were prepared by deposition
of tetra-ethyl-ortho-silicate (TEOS)/spin-on-glass (SOG)/
TEOS stacks on barrier metal. ACCUSIZER 780 system
(Sci-Tec, USA) was used to examine the size distribution of
slurry particles. In order to inspect the microscratches,
advanced inspection tool (AIT) and KLA 2135 (KLA-
Tencor, USA) system were used.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 2 shows the distribution of defects on wafer surface
observed by using KLA 2135 system after CMP process. In
Fig. 2, the black parts are the cell area without the defects
and the white spotted parts represent the cell area with the
defects. An average defect density of 2– 5 defects/cm2 was
measured.
Fig. 3 shows a microscratch photograph of wafer surface
using AIT microscope. Several microscratches, so-called
fish bone, were formed near the metal interconnection line.
Fig. 3a shows a typical image of metal bridge by micro-
scratches on IMD layer; it means that metal residues remain
around the microscratches. Fig. 3b represents the stringer,
where these severe scratches attack the under-layer of metal
line or IMD cracks. Through these cracks, chemicals go into
metal lines during post-CMP cleaning and make metal
Fig. 5. Trend chart of defect density as a function of filter size.
2093
corrosions. Such microscratches were originated from the
large slurry particles due to agglomeration of slurry in slurry
supply pipeline. Generally, microscratches are generated by
agglomerated slurry, solidified and attached slurry in pipe-
line of slurry supply system [5,7]. Most slurries for dielec-
tric materials are composed of fumed silica of which particle
size is about 0.2 Am. When the large particles, which are
originated from the agglomeration of slurry, come in contact
with the wafer surface during the polishing, scratches can be
formed [7]. In order to prevent such defects, POU filter was
installed at the front and rear of the IPEC AVANTI-472
CMP polisher.
Fig. 4 shows the particle size distribution with and without
slurry filter measured by AccuSizer 780. For the case of
nonfiltration, the particle counts of 1 – 2 Am size were
distributed from 5000 to 17,000. However, for the case of
POU slurry filter, the particles counts of 1 – 2 Am size were
decreased from 3500 to 500, and the particles more than 2 Am
were removed by use of POU slurry filter. The above result
shows that the numbers of large-sized particles after filtration
is abruptly reduced in comparison with no filtration.
Fig. 5 shows in comparison the defect density as a
function of POU filter size. The filter was not used for the
first 15 sheets of wafers polished on the same CMP pad; a
0.7 Am filter was used for the next 23 sheets, and a 0.5 Am
filter was used for the next 32 sheets. As shown in the Fig.
5, the filter size is smaller, the defect density is remarkably
decreased, and a 0.5 Am filter shows a very low defect
density of less than 1 defect/cm2.
Fig. 6 shows a comparison of the defect density as a
function of the polished wafer counts for different filter
size. Fig. 6a is the case without POU filter, and Fig. 6b
and c are the cases for using 0.7 and 0.5 Am filter,
respectively. For the case of nonfilter, as shown in Fig.
6a, the low defect density of 1– 4 defect/cm2 due to
microscratches was observed from 310th-wafer which was
polished on the same polishing pad, and, as the polishing
continuously proceeds up to 550th-wafer, the defect
density of 6 –7 defect/cm2 was measured. However, any
defects were not observed when a 0.7 Am POU filter was
used as shown in Fig. 6b. This indicates the advantages
of POU filter. As the polished wafer count on the same
pad was increased, the very low defect density of less
than 1 defect/cm2 began to be observed from the 500th-
polished wafer. However, as the polishing proceeds fur-
ther, the defect number due to the relatively large-sized
2094 Y.-J. Seo et al. / Materials Letters 58 (2004) 2091–2095

Fig. 6. Defect number as a function of polished wafer counts: (a) nonfilter; (b) 0.7 Am filter; (c) 0.5 Am filter.

scratches, not micrometer size, was detected from the
570th-wafer. Finally, when a 0.5 Am filter was installed, it
showed the relatively many defects of 7 –15 defect/cm2
from 650th-wafer to 740th-wafer. The large amount of
defects, about 20 defect/cm2, were found from the 840th-
wafer. This means that the filtering efficiency due to the
lifetime degradation of slurry filter and polishing pad was
remarkably reduced. Considering these results in total,
when the POU filter was used, not only can the defect
density be remarkably decreased but the lifetime of
polishing pad can be increased as well. In other words,
the polishing pad can be used for up to 600 sheet wafers;
this indicates that the lifetime of polishing pad will
increase more than two times when a 0.5 Am filter was
used.
Fig. 7 shows the defect number as a function of the
filtering date after the POU filter installation in order to
check the exchange cycle of slurry filter. From the 21st date
after filter installation of 0.7 Am and 0.5 Am, the defects due
to the microscratches appeared, but 0.5 Am filter showed a
lower defect number than 0.7 Am filter. And the defects due
to the scratches appeared after the 31st date. However, any
remarkable difference as a function of filter size was not
observed. It means that the exchange cycle of polishing pad

Fig. 7. Defect number as a function of passed date after filter installation: (a) 0.7 Am filter; (b) 0.5 Am filter.
 Y.-J. Seo et al. / Materials Letters 58 (2004) 2091–2095
Fig. 8. Trend chart of defect density with and without POU slurry filter: (a)
without slurry filter; (b) with 0.5 Am slurry filter.
can be adjusted consistently regardless of filter size as
explained in Fig. 6. The slurry was filtered very stably for
31 days without affecting polishing rate after POU filter
installation, and, through the above result, we could con-
clude that the lifetime of POU slurry filter will be approx-
imately 1 month.
Fig. 8 shows the distributions of defect density with and
without POU filter, respectively. The particle sizes were
defined as follows: a small particle size is below 1 Am; a
medium particle size is between 1 and 3 Am; and a large
particle size is over 3 Am. In most cases, the scratch-causing
defects were increased in proportion to the counts of
polished wafers, but, through the use of POU slurry filter,
we could make it possible for the defects to be less than the
counts of polished wafers. Fig. 8b shows that the defect
density can be reduced by the use of POU slurry filter.
However, several particles are still happening after using
2095
POU slurry filter. This means that the slurries are continu-
ously agglomerated during the filtration.
4. Conclusion
Microscratches are typical defects of the CMP process
and are produced mainly due to the agglomeration of slurry
in the supply pipeline of CMP system. In order to remove
the microscratches from the wafer surface during the oxide
CMP process, we installed a POU slurry filter at the front of
the slurry supply system. The defect density was remarkably
reduced by that installation.
Additionally, this study showed that a 0.5 Am filter was
the most effective, and that the lifetime of the polishing pad
could be increased by more than two times when a 0.5 Am
filter was used. The lifetime of the POU slurry filter was
estimated to be about 1 month. We have concluded that the
slurry filter plays an important role in determining the
lifetime of the consumable pad, and the filter lifetime is
dominated by defect count.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Korea Research Foundation
Grant (KRF-2002-005-D00011).
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