Effects of Polymer Adsorption on Stabilities and CMP Performance of Ceria Abrasive Particles

In this paper we present that the effects of polymer adsorption on stabilities and CMP performance of ceria abrasive particles. Characterization of ceria abrasive particles in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) was performed by the measurements of adsorbed amounts of PVP, average sizes, and the back scattering intensities of the ceria abrasive particles as functions of PVP molecular weight and PVP concentration. The ceria abrasive particles in the presence of PVP were used to polish $SiO_2\;and\;Si_3N_4$ films deposited on Si wafers in order to understand the effect of PVP adsorption on chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) performance, together with ceria abrasive particles without PVP. Adsorption of PVP on the ceria abrasive particles enhanced the stability of ceria abrasive particles due to steric stabilization of the thick adsorbed layer of PVP. Removal rates of the deposited $SiO_2\;and\;Si_3N_4$ films by the ceria abrasive particles in the presence of PVP were much lower than those in the absence of PVP and their magnitudes were decreased with an increase in the concentration of free PVP chains in the dispersion media. This suggests that the CMP performance in the presence of PVP could be mainly controlled by the hydrodynamic interactions between the adsorbed PVP chains and the free ones. Moreover, the molecular weight dependence of PVP on the removal rates of the deposited films was hardly observed. On the other hand, high removal rate selectivity between the deposited films in the presence of PVP was not observed.