Recovery of cerium from glass polishing slurry

Cerium was extracted from rare earth slurry waste used for polishing a glass substrate.Initially,glass frit and flocculant were removed by froth flotation and dissolution.The recovered rare earth slurry exhibited almost the same particle size distribution as original slurry,which could be reused as slurry for glass polishing.From the rare earth slurry,the cerium solution was obtained by an oxidative thermal treatment and subsequent chemical leaching.The cerium solution was further purified up to 94% by selective precipitation of rare earth species.

Preparation of composite abrasives by electrostatic self-assembly method and its polishing properties in Cu CMP

The adsorption characteristics of cationic polyelectrolyte poly dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride （PDADMAC） and anionic polyelectrolyte poly （sodium-p-styrenesulfonate） （PSS） on benzoguanamine formal- dehyde （BGF） particles are investigated. The charging characteristics of BGF particles are changed and con- trolled using electrostatic self-assembly method. A variety of PE,-BGF/SiO2 composite abrasives are obtained. The as-prepared samples are analyzed by zeta potential analysis, transmission electron microscope （TEM） and thermogravimetric （TG） analysis. The composite abrasive slurries are prepared for copper polishing. The poli- shing results indicate that it is SiO2 abrasives, not only coated SiO2 abrasive on polymer particles but also free SiO2 abrasive in slurry, that offer the polishing action. The material removal rates of copper polishing are 264 nm/min, 348 nm/min and 476 nm/min using single SiO2 abrasive slurry, PE0-BGF/SiO2 mixed abrasive slur- ry and PE3-BGF/SiO2 composite abrasive slurry, respectively. The surface roughness Ra of copper wafer （with 5μm×5μm district） is decreased from 0.166 μm to 3.7 nm, 2.6 nm and 1.5 nm, and the surface peak-valley values Rrv are less than 20 nm, 14 nm and 10 nm using these kinds of slurries, respectively. Key words ： chemico-mechanical polishing; polishing slurry; composite abrasives ; polyelectrolyte ; copper

TWO STEPS CHEMICAL-MECHANICAL POLISHING OF RIGID DISK SUBSTRATE TO GET ATOM-SCALE PLANARIZATION SURFACE

In order to get atomic smooth rigid disk substrate surface, ultra-fined alumina slurry and nanometer silica slurry are prepared, and two steps chemical-mechanical polishing （CMP） of rigid disk substrate in the two slurries are studied. The results show that, during the first step CMP in the alumina slurry, a high material removal rate is reached, and the average roughness （Ra） and the average waviness （Wa） of the polished surfaces can be decreased from previous 1.4 nm and 1.6 nm to about 0.6 nm and 0.7 nm, respectively. By using the nanometer silica slurry and optimized polishing process parameters in the second step CMP, the Ra and the Wa of the polished surfaces can be further reduced to 0.038 nm and 0.06 am, respectively. Atom force microscopy （AFM） analysis shows that the final polished surfaces are ultra-smooth without micro-defects.

A quantitative investigation of the influence with the components of the CMP alkali slurry on the polishing rate

The influence of the components of an alkali polishing slurry and the mutual influences on the Cu polishing rate were investigated by a CMP polishing rate prediction model established with a modified artificial neural network based on the artificial bee colony algorithm. The quantitative method of sensitivity analysis was employed to fulfill the purpose ofquantizing the influence on the polishing rate. The result of the analysis indicates that under certain CMP conditions, the Cu polishing rate was controlled by the silica abrasives, the FA/O chelating agent, the surfactant and the oxidant agent in the polishing slurry. Such factors showed the different sensitivity coefficients with 0.78, 0.53, 0.29 and 0.19 respectively on all the sample points. The mutual influence between the FA/O chelating agent and the oxidant agent on the polishing rate seemed obviously strongest when the proportion of them was 2 to 7, with the global sensitivity coefficients between 5 to 9; the mutual influence of silica abrasives and oxidant on the polishing rate was greater as the proportion of the above additives was beyond 5, with the global sensitivity coefficients between 2.5 and 6; the mutual influence of the surfactant and oxidant on the polishing rate was not obvious, with global sensitivity coefficients less than 3. Thus, it provides a kind of effective method for quantitating the influence with the components of the CMP alkali slurry on the polishing rate.

Effect of 1,2,4-triazole on galvanic corrosion between cobalt and copper in CMP based alkaline slurry

Cobalt has become a new type of barrier material with its unique advantages since the copper-interconnects in the great-large scale integrated circuits （GLSI） into 10 nm and below technical nodes, but cobalt and copper have severe galvanic corrosion during chemical-mechanical flattening. The effect of 1,2,4-triazole on Co/Cu galvanic corrosion in alkaline slurry and the control of rate selectivity of copper and cobalt were investigated in this work. The results of electrochemical experiments and polishing experiments had indicated that a certain concentration of 1,2,4-triazole could form a layer of insoluble and dense passive film on the surface of cobalt and cop- per, which reduced the corrosion potential difference between cobalt and copper. Meantime, the removal rate of cobalt and copper could be effectively controlled according to demand during the CMP process. When the study optimized slurry was composed of 0.5 wt% colloidal silica, 0.1%vol. hydrogen peroxide, 0.05 wt% FA/O, 345 ppm 1,2,4-triazole, cobalt had higher corrosion potential than copper and the galvanic corrosion could be reduced effectively when the corrosion potential difference between them decreased to 1 mV and the galvanic corrosion current density reached 0.02 nA/cm2. Meanwhile, the removal rate of Co was 62.396 nm/min, the removal rate of Cu was 47.328 nm/min, so that the removal rate ratio of cobalt and copper was 1.32 ： 1, which was a good amendment to the dishing pits. The contact potential corrosion of Co/Cu was very weak, which could be better for meeting the requirements of the barrier CMP.

Material removal rate of 6H-SiC crystal substrate CMP using an alumina(Al_2O_3) abrasive

The influences of the polishing slurry composition,such as the pH value,the abrasive size and its concentration,the dispersant and the oxidants,the rotational velocity of the polishing platen and the carrier and the polishing pressure,on the material removal rate of SiC crystal substrate（0001） Si and a（0001） C surface have been studied based on the alumina abrasive in chemical mechanical polishing（CMP）.The results proposed by our research here will provide a reference for developing the slurry,optimizing the process parameters,and investigating the material removal mechanism in the CMP of SiC crystal substrate.