University of Florida Research Foundation, Incorporated

Sinmat, Inc.

Entegris, Inc.

Entregis, Inc.

Deepika Singh

Rajiv K Singh

Arul Arjunan

Abhudaya Mishra

Wei Bai

Chaitanya Ginde

Kannan Balasundaram

Puneet N Jawali

Dibakar Das

Tanjore V Jayaraman

Sunny De

Purushottam Kumar

Aditya Dilip Verma

Arul Chakkaravarthi Arjunan

Chaitanya Dnyanesh Ginde

A slurry for chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) includes an aqueous liquid carrier, an oxygen and anion containing transition metal compound or polyatomic cations including a transition metal and oxygen or hydrogen, and a per-based oxidizer. The anion for the oxygen and anion containing transition metal compound can include oxynitrate, oxychloride, oxyhydroxide, oxyacetate, oxysulfide, or oxysulfate. The per-based oxidizer can be a permanganate compound.

CMP composition for polishing hard materials

A method of CMP includes providing a slurry solution including &#x2265;1 per-compound oxidizer in a concentration between 0.01 M and 2 M with a pH from 2 to 5 or 8 to 11, and &#x2265;1 buffering agent which provides a buffering ratio &#x2265;1.5 that compares an amount of a strong acid needed to reduce the pH from 9.0 to 3.0 as compared to an amount of strong acid to change the pH from 9.0 to 3.0 without the buffering agent. The slurry solution is exclusive any hard slurry particles or has only soft slurry particles that have throughout a Vickers hardness &#x3c;300 Kg/mmor Mohs Hardness &#x3c;4. The slurry solution is dispensed on a hard surface having a Vickers hardness &#x3e;1,000 kg/mmis pressed by a polishing pad with the slurry solution in between while rotating the polishing pad relative to the hard surface.

Hard abrasive particle-free polishing of hard materials

A method of processing chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) pad conditioners includes providing the CMP pad conditioner including conditioner substrate that is a metal, ceramic or a metal-ceramic material with a plurality of hard conditioner particles with a Vickers hardness greater than 3,000 Kg/mmbonded to a top surface of the conditioner substrate, and a slurry including an aqueous medium and a plurality of hard slurry particles having a hardness greater than 3,000 Kg/mm. The surface of the pad conditioner is polished in a CMP apparatus using a polishing pad. After the polishing each conditioner particle has at least one exposed facet, and the plurality of hard conditioner particles have a maximum average protrusion-to-protrusion flatness (PPF) difference of 20 microns, and a sharpest edge measured by a value of a cutting edge radius (CER) that lies at an edge of the facet for at least 80% of the facets.

CMP polishing pad conditioner

A method to provide compressive stress to substrates includes depositing a film on a ceramic substrate at a deposition temperature (Td) to form an article, the film having a difference relative to the ceramic substrate at Td in a coefficient thermal expansion (CTE) of at least 1.0&#xd7;10/K and a difference in a refractive index &#x3e;0.10. At least a portion of the thickness the film is converted in at least one of composition, phase and microstructure by lowering or raising the temperature from Td to reach a changed temperature (Tc) that is at least 100&#xb0; C. different from Td. The film converting conditions result in the converted film portion providing a difference in refractive index at the Tc between the converted film and the ceramic substrate of &#x2264;|0.10|. The temperature of the article is then lowered to room temperature.

Film for applying compressive stress to ceramic materials

A CMP method uses a slurry including colloidal metal oxide or colloidal semiconductor oxide particles (colloidal particles) in water. At least one particle feature is selected from (i) the colloidal particles having a polydispersity &#x3e;30%, and (ii) mixed particle types including the colloidal particles having an average primary size &#x3e;50 nm mixed with fumed oxide particles having average primary size &#x3c;25 nm. A substrate having an alumina surface is placed into a CMP apparatus, and CMP is performed with a rotating polishing pad and the slurry to polish the alumina surface. The polydispersity is determined by a polydispersity formula for a distribution width (w) involving width wand width wat a second larger particle size. The polydispersity formula=(w&#x2212;w)&#xd7;100/dav which includes 63% of a total of the colloidal particles by volume and day is an average particle size of the colloidal particles.

Method of chemical mechanical polishing of alumina

A chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) includes providing a slurry including composite particles dispersed in a water-based carrier that comprise a plurality of hard particles on an outer surface of a soft-core particle. The hard particles have a Mohs hardness at least 1 greater than a Mohs hardness of the soft core particle and/or a Vickers hardness at least 500 Kg/mmgreater than the soft-core particle. A substrate having a substrate surface with a hardness greater than a Mohs number of 6 or a Vickers hardness greater than 1,000 kg/mmis placed into a CMP apparatus having a rotating polishing pad, and CMP is performed with the rotating polishing pad and the slurry to polish the substrate surface.

Polishing of hard substrates with soft-core composite particles

A CMP method uses a slurry including a first metal oxide or semiconductor oxide particles (first oxide particles) in water. At least one particle feature is selected from (i) first oxide particles having a polydispersity &#x3e;30%, (ii) a coating on first oxide particles including Group I or Group II ions, transition metal oxide, or organic material, (iii) first oxide particles mixed with fumed oxide particles, (iv) first oxide particles with average primary size &#x3e;50 nm mixed with fumed oxide particles having average primary size &#x3c;25 nm, and (v) first oxide particles with a per surface area per unit mass &#x3c;100 m/gm mixed with another oxide particle type having an average area per unit mass &#x3e;150 m/gm. A substrate having an alumina surface is placed into a CMP apparatus, and CMP is performed with a rotating polishing pad and the slurry to polish the alumina surface.

Chemical mechanical polishing of alumina

Slurry compositions and chemically activated CMP methods for polishing a substrate having a silicon carbide surface using such slurries. In such methods, the silicon carbide surface is contacted with a CMP slurry composition that comprises i) a liquid carrier and ii) a plurality of particles having at least a soft surface portion, wherein the soft surface portion includes a transition metal compound that provides a Mohs hardness &#x3c;6, and optionally iii) an oxidizing agent. The oxidizing agent can include a transition metal. The slurry is moved relative to the silicon carbide comprising surface, wherein at least a portion of the silicon carbide surface is removed.

Chemical mechanical polishing of silicon carbide comprising surfaces

A method of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) a diamond containing surface includes providing a slurry including a plurality of particles, at least one oxidizer, and at least one acid, wherein the slurry has a pH&#x2266;3 or pH greater than 11. At least an outer surface of the plurality of particles is softer than the diamond surface or the particles are diamond particles averaging less than (&#x3c;) 2 &#x3bc;m in size. The diamond surface is pressed with respect to a polishing pad providing a Shore D Hardness less than 99 having the slurry in between while rotating the polishing pad relative to the diamond surface to form a smooth diamond surface having a root mean square (rms) surface roughness less than 15 nm.

CMP method for forming smooth diamond surfaces

A method of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) a diamond containing surface includes providing a slurry including a plurality of particles, at least one oxidizer, and at least one acid, wherein the slurry has a pH&#x2266;3 or pH greater than 11. At least an outer surface of the plurality of particles is softer than the diamond surface or the particles are diamond particles averaging less than (&#x3c;)2 &#x3bc;m in size. The diamond surface is pressed with respect to a polishing pad providing a Shore D Hardness less than 99 having the slurry in between while rotating the polishing pad relative to the diamond surface to form a smooth diamond surface having a root mean square (rms) surface roughness less than 15 nm.

Smooth diamond surfaces and CMP method for forming

A method of chemically-mechanically polishing a substrate having a Group III-nitride surface includes providing a chemical-mechanical polishing slurry composition. The slurry composition includes a slurry solution including a liquid carrier and an oxidizer including a transition metal or a per-based compound. The slurry solution includes at least one component that reacts with the Group III-nitride surface to form a softened Group III-nitride surface. The Group III-nitride comprising surface is contacted with the slurry composition by a pad to form the softened Group III-nitride surface. The pad is moved relative to the softened Group III-nitride surface, wherein at least a portion of the softened Group III-nitride surface is removed.

Chemical mechanical polishing of group III-nitride surfaces

A chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) apparatus includes a process controller operable to execute a multi-step CMP algorithm implementing delivering a first chemical composition onto the wafer surface while on a platen for a first time duration, and without removing the wafer from the platen, delivering a second chemical composition different from the first chemical composition onto the wafer surface for a second time duration. CMP is performed with a polishing pad contacting the wafer surface using a slurry including the first chemical composition during the first time duration or the second chemical composition during the second time duration, and a non-polishing process without any contact of the polishing pad to the wafer surface using the other of the first and second chemical composition during the other of the time durations, and repeating the multi-step CMP comprising process a plurality of times on the wafer.

CMP tool implementing cyclic self-limiting CM process

Slurry compositions and chemically activated CMP methods for polishing a substrate having a silicon carbide surface using such slurries. In such methods, the silicon carbide surface is contacted with a CMP slurry composition that comprises i) a liquid carrier and ii) a plurality of particles having at least a soft surface portion, wherein the soft surface portion includes a transition metal compound that provides a Mohs hardness &#x2266;6, and optionally iii) an oxidizing agent. The oxidizing agent can include a transition metal. The slurry is moved relative to the silicon carbide comprising surface, wherein at least a portion of the silicon carbide surface is removed.

A cyclic method of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) a wafer having a surface includes placing the wafer on a platen in a CMP apparatus and then performing a multi-step CMP comprising process. The multi-step CMP process includes delivering a first chemical composition onto the wafer while on the platen for a first time duration, and without removing the wafer from the platen, delivering a second chemical composition different from the first composition onto the wafer for a second time duration after the first time duration. The multi-step CMP comprising process includes CMP removal using a slurry during one of the first and second time durations and a non-polishing process during the other of the first and second time durations. The multi-step CMP comprising process is repeated a plurality of times.

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Newberry, FL, United States of America

Deepika Singh