Highly selective chemical mechanical polishing of Si3N4 over SiO2 using advanced silica abrasive

Highly selective chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of Si3N4 over SiO2 is achieved by using a modified silica abrasive. Controlling the removal rate of Si3N4/SiO2, chemical reaction is a dominant factor for ceria abrasive, but physical force such as repulsion/attraction is a primary one for silica abrasive. In order to maximize mechanical action in CMP process using silica slurry, we modified the surface charge of silica abrasive into having more negative charge, which resulting in −50 mV of zeta potential in a low pH (< 3.0) slurry. This strong negative zeta potential of the modified silica abrasive enables enhancing attractive forces to Si3N4 and repulsive forces to SiO2 in a low pH environment. In addition, a cocoon shape silica abrasive shows 3 times higher Si3N4 RR than a spherical shape one. Consequently, selectivity of Si3N4 over SiO2 reaches 95.0, which is significantly improved from 0.0167 in the conventional silica abrasive case. When this modified silicon abrasive and the optimum pH condition are applied, in-chip uniformity at various pattern densities of Si3N4 (0, 12, and 32%) turns out to be well controlled under 100 A. This result is an acceptable level for our semiconductor device integration.