Micron Technology Incorporated

Daniel A Koos

Gurtej S Sandhu

Sung C Kim

Donald L Westmoreland

Salman Akram

Scott G Meikle

A slurry composition enhances the removal of polish-resistant surface moieties from the surface of a semiconductor wafer during chemical-mechanical polishing. The slurry composition is a mixture including a solvent, a plurality of abrasive particles, and a chelating agent. The abrasive particles abrade the surface of the wafer to remove surface moieties and underlying material. The chelating agent is selected to react with polish-resistant surface moieties on the surface of the wafer surface, to thereby render the surface moieties easier to remove from the surface layer with substantially non-aggressive chemical-mechanical polishing techniques. In operation, the surface moieties and the underlying bulk material are removed by a combination of the chemical effects of the chelating agent and the mechanical effects of the abrasive particles.

Slurry with chelating agent for chemical-mechanical polishing of a semiconductor wafer and methods related thereto

A method of planarizing a substrate employs two separate chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) steps. In the first CMP step, the substrate is polished using a first CMP slurry solution and a polishing pad. A diluting solution is then applied to the polishing pad to remove slurry of the first CMP step. In the second CMP step, after applying the diluting solution to the polishing pad to remove the first slurry, second CMP slurry solution is applied to the polishing pad to facilitate additional planarization of the substrate. In a particular embodiment of this invention, the diluting solution comprises a buffer solution having a pH level corresponding to a pH level of one of the first or second CMP slurry solution. In accordance with another aspect of this embodiment, a plurality of different diluting solutions are applied to the polishing pad intermediate the respective first and second CMP steps.

Method of chemical mechanical polishing

Slurry with chelating agent for chemical-mechanical polishing of a

A method of depositing a film of titanium nitride on a substrate which includes, positioning the substrate within a chemical vapor deposition reactor chamber which is maintained at a predetermined temperature and pressure; combining a gaseous source of nitrogen with a gaseous source of titanium to form a reactant gas mixture having complementary reactant molecules; and delivering the complementary reactant molecules within the chemical vapor deposition reactor from a selected distance from the substrate of greater than 1 cm. which facilitates the formation of titanium nitride film on the substrate having a given surface roughness which is at least 50% rougher than the titanium nitride film deposited using the same gaseous sources of titanium and nitrogen and which are combined under the same temperature and pressure condition but which are delivered to the surface of the substrate from a distance of about 1 cm. The gaseous sources of nitrogen may include phenylhydrazine.

Method for depositing a film of titanium nitride

A semiconductor processing method of detecting polishing end point from a polishing planarization process includes: a) impinging laser light onto an area of an outermost surface of a semiconductor substrate at an angle of incidence of at least 70.degree. from a line normal relative to the substrate (at least 60.degree. for s-polarized light), the impinged laser light predominantly reflecting off the area as opposed to transmitting therethrough; b) measuring intensity of the light reflected off the area; c) polishing the substrate outermost surface; d) repeating step 'a' then step 'b'; and e) comparing a prior measured intensity of reflected light with a later measured intensity of reflected light to determine a change in degree of planarity of the semiconductor substrate outermost surface as a result of polishing.

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Tempe, AZ, United States of America

Daniel A Koos