Following our earlier analysis of amino acids, we investigated the effectiveness of acetic acid, pyridine, and sorbitol that were chosen to represent carboxylic acid, amine and alcohol functional group families, respectively, as additives in ceria dispersions for polishing SiO 2 and Si 3 N 4 films. By comparing the speciation of the additives available and the material removal rates with respect to pH, we identified that the removal rates of nitride, but not oxide, are suppressed to <1 nm/min in the pH range where the additive species containing a protonated amino group or a neutral carboxylic group or a neutral hydroxyl group are dominant. All of these species are strong hydrogen bond donors and can form strong hydrogen bonds with Si 3 N 4 surface while their corresponding bonding on SiO 2 surface sites is weaker. The stronger hydrogen bonding hinders Si 3 N 4 hydrolysis and suppresses Si 3 N 4 removal. In contrast, the weakly bound additive species are easily removed from the SiO 2 surface by the polishing pad and the ceria abrasives, leading to high SiO 2 to Si 3 N 4 removal rate selectivity. Similar results were also obtained with valeric acid, imidazole, glucose, sucrose, and mannitol, confirming the importance of a strong hydrogen bond formation in a broader class of additives. Shallow trench isolation (STI), which helps isolate the transistors and prevents shorting and cross-talk, is a widely used process in semiconductor device fabrication. The STI process includes the deposition of silicon nitride on a thermally grown pad oxide followed by the etching of a shallow trench into the silicon substrate. A layer of silicon oxide such as tetraethyl ortho silicate (TEOS) oxide, high density plasma (HDP) oxide, or high aspect ratio process (HARP) oxide is deposited on the entire substrate surface, not only filling the trenches but also creating an uneven topography. After the trenches are filled, the excess deposited oxide needs to be removed and the topography planarized before the fabrication of any IC elements. So far, chemical mechanical polishing/planarization (CMP) has been the only viable technique to remove the overburden oxide and planarize the topographies. This STI CMP step requires a slurry which polishes the overburden oxide with high oxide removal rate (RR) and stops on the underlying nitride surface with minimal nitride loss and oxide dishing.Ceria-based dispersions 1 containing various additives have a huge market position for planarizing these STI structures efficiently because of their superior ability to polish oxide films at high rates using only a low solids loading of ∼1 wt% or less and to stop on the underlying nitride film with minimal loss as well as dishing. 2,3 In the absence of any additive, these same ceria slurries would also produce significant nitride RRs and lead to considerable nitride loss. Hence, many types of additives (amino acids, amines, surfactants, polymers and acids) were investigated to achieve high oxide-to-nitride rate selectivity.
4-12For example, America and Babu ...