US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Processing of Silica Fumes From Ferrosilicon Industries into Chemical Mechanical Polishing Nanoslurries for Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing

0527560 Singh描述：该项目支持佛罗里达大学（UF）材料科学与工程系Rajiv Singh博士和埃及赫勒万中央冶金研究与发展研究所（CMRDI）Mohamed El-Desouki之间的合作研究。 他们计划研究将硅铁工业生产的硅灰副产品转化为先进半导体制造的化学机械抛光纳米浆料。智力优势：该项目的总体目标是将硅铁工业的低质量硅灰副产品转化为CMP浆料的高质量二氧化硅，可用于半导体制造中铜膜的无缺陷抛光。为了将二氧化硅副产物转化为铜CMP浆料，必须克服若干技术挑战，包括（i）二氧化硅副产物的表征，（ii）从副产物中分离亚微米（50- 200 nm）颗粒，（iii）浆料配制和（iv）铜CMP测试和性能测量。这两名PI及其团队拥有解决上述处理和表征问题所需的专业知识。CMRDI在颗粒科学和技术方面拥有世界一流的专业知识，包括颗粒的分离和湿法处理，而UF在浆料配方、CMP测试和表征方面拥有专业知识。值得注意的是，该研究所面临的挑战是独一无二的，而且之前还没有得到解决。更广泛的影响：该项目预计将对纳米颗粒的开发及其在半导体制造业的应用产生重大影响。CMP浆料是世界上增长最快的亚微米二氧化硅颗粒专用化学品市场（市场规模大于5亿美元/年），这是由于其用于制造基于逻辑的设备（例如Intel的Pentium芯片）中的铜互连。目前，据估计CMP浆料占半导体制造设备运行的经常性成本的30%以上。因此，该项目有可能将埃及生产的廉价不良副产品转化为全球半导体制造业的高附加值产品。该项目还将美国CMP研究人员的国际专业知识与埃及的颗粒技术专家（CMRDI）结合在一起。此外，该项目可能导致从埃及向从事先进半导体制造的其他国家（美国，法国，日本，韩国，台湾等）出口二氧化硅颗粒/浆料。该项目还将帮助培训美国和埃及的学生和科学家。 该项目将涉及至少一名美国研究生的支持。 该项目得到了美国-埃及联合基金方案的支持，该方案向两国的科学家和工程师提供赠款，以开展这些合作活动。

0527560SinghDescription: This project supports a collaborative research between Dr. Rajiv Singh, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida (UF) and Mohamed El-Desouki, Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI), Helwan, Egypt. They plan to study the transformation of silica fume by-products produced from ferrosilicon industries into chemical mechanical polishing nano-slurries for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Intellectual Merit: The overall goal of this project is to transform low quality silica fume by-product from ferrosilicon industries into high quality silica for CMP slurries, which can be used for defect-free polishing of copper films in semiconductor manufacturing. To transform the silica byproduct into a copper CMP slurry, several technical challenges have to be overcome including (i) characterization of the silica by-product, (ii) separation of submicron (50- 200 nm) particles from the byproduct, (iii) slurry formulation and (iv) copper CMP testing and performance measurements. The two PIs and their teams have the expertise needed to address the above-mentioned processing and characterization issues. CMRDI possesses world-class expertise in particle science and technology including separation and wet processing of particles, while UF has expertise in slurry formulation, CMP testing and characterization. It should be noted that the research challenge is unique and is not known to have been addressed earlier.Broader Impacts: The project is expected to have a strong impact on the development of nanoparticles and its applications to semiconductor manufacturing industry. The CMP slurry is the fastest growing specialty chemical market for sub-micron silica particles in the world (market size greater than $ 500 million/yr) due to its use in manufacture of copper interconnects in logic based devices such as Intel's Pentium chips. Presently it is estimated that CMP slurries constitute more than 30 % of the recurring costs of running a semiconductor manufacturing facility. Thus, the project has the potential to transform a cheap undesirable byproduct produced in Egypt into a highly value added product for the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. This project also brings together the international expertise of CMP researchers in the U.S. with particle technology experts in Egypt (CMRDI). Furthermore, this project could lead to export of silica particles/slurries from Egypt to other countries engaged in advanced semiconductor manufacturing (US, France, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc.). The project will also help in training of U.S. and Egyptian students and scientists. The project will involve support for at least one U.S. graduate student. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.