Ara Philipossian

Novel slurry injection system for improved slurry flow, enhanced material removal and reduced defects in CMP

In this study, a novel slurry injection system (SIS) is introduced. SIS is placed on top of the pad which conformally rides on the pad surface during polishing and presents a thin and uniform slurry film to the wafer. Examples of SIS installed on various 200 and 300 mm commercial polishers are shown. Removal rate and polishing defects are compared between SIS and the conventional pad center area slurry application method. Through more efficient slurry delivery and reduced slurry mixing and dilution, SIS has achieved more uniform slurry flow, higher material removal rate or the same removal rate with significantly lower slurry consumption, and lower number of wafer-level polishing defects than the conventional slurry application method.