(39e) Application of Surfactants as Selectivity Enhancing Agents in Chemical Mechanical Polishing

Among various properties of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurry, selectivity plays a key role in global planarization of high density and small pattern size shallow trench isolation (STI) process. To improve the selectivity of STI CMP process, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), an anionic surfactant, was added to increase the selectivity of the slurry. As a result, selectivity increased from 3 to 25. It was concluded that selective passivation layer formed on silicon nitride wafer surface at acidic slurry pH range was responsible for the observed selectivity increase. Adsorption characteristics of SDS on silica and silicon nitride were measured as a function of slurry pH and concentration of SDS. As indicated by zeta potential behavior under acidic pH conditions, SDS adsorption on silicon nitride was significantly higher than silica due to the electrostatic forces resulting in lubrication layer leading to increased polishing selectivity.