SBIR Phase I: Chemical Mechanical Planarization pad with controlled micro features for sub 7nm semiconductor technology

这一小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是为半导体芯片制造商提供一种扩展摩尔定律的方法，同时使他们能够降低抛光过程中损坏的耗材和废料晶圆的成本。目前，由于半导体器件结构的复杂性和缩小尺寸，芯片制造商面临着继续遵循摩尔定律的挑战。随着计算机、移动的手机、平板电脑和物联网在日常生活中变得无处不在，提高计算机芯片性能对无数应用至关重要。这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将通过使用化学机械平坦化来解决半导体行业试图超越14 nm技术所面临的挑战。抛光垫用于平坦化晶片表面以用于多层堆叠集成。传统的抛光垫技术具有随机分布的微孔，由于应力集中在具有小于1%的真实的接触面积的凹凸体上，导致不均匀的抛光和刮伤。此外，传统的焊盘需要焊盘调节工艺以再生焊盘表面。本计画提出利用微加工技术在焊盘表面设计微特征。此外，焊盘和晶片之间的真实的接触面积将可控地增加到总焊盘-晶片接触的5- 10%。这将使抛光性能更加精确和一致。微特征被设计成更长时间地保持抛光浆料，从而增加用于抛光的活性浆料磨料的数量。接触面积和特征设计将根据客户应用的特定抛光性能要求进行调整。硬顶垫与软子垫的独立多体结构将增加垫的一致性，并将抛光压力均匀地分布在垫表面上。这将显著提高芯片级平坦化和晶圆级均匀性，并减少抛光过程中的抛光垫磨损。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to offers a way for semiconductor chip fabricators to extend Moore's Law and simultaneously allowing them to reduce costs in consumables and scrap wafers that have been damaged during polishing. Currently chip fabricators are challenged to continue Moore's Law due to the complexity and scale down sizes of semiconductor device structures. Improved computer chip performance is critical to countless applications as computers,mobile phones, tablets, and Internet of Thing have become ubiquitous in everyday life.This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will address the challenges which the semiconductor industry faces trying to move beyond 14 nm technologies by using Chemical Mechanical Planarization. Polishing pads are used to planarize wafer surface for multilayer stack integration. Conventional polishing pad technology has randomly distributed micro pores that lead to non-uniform polishing and scratched due to stress concentration on asperities with less than 1% real contact area. Additionally, conventional pads require a pad conditioning process to re-generate pad surface. This project proposes engineering micro features on the pad surface using micro fabrication technologies. In addition, the real contact area between the pad and wafer will be controllable increasing to 5-10 percent of the total pad-wafer contact. This will make the polishing performance more precise and consistent. The micro features are designed to retain polishing slurry longer so to increase the number of active slurry abrasives for polishing. The contact area and feature design will be tunable to specific polishing performance requirements per customer applications. The independent multi-body structure of a hard top-pad with a soft sub-pad will increase the conformity of the pad and distribute the pressure from polishing evenly across the pad surface. This will significantly improve the chip-level planarization and wafer-level uniformity, as well as reducing the pad wear during polishing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.