Environmental impact of concentration of slurry components in thick copper CMP

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Abstract

wChemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is the dirtiest semiconductor process using a slurry containing chemicals and abrasives. CMP process consumes a huge amount of slurry, which affects environmental sustainability negatively. The semiconductor industry has attempted to evaluate and reduce the carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) for environmental sustainability. In this study, the environmental impact of the concentration of the slurry components in CMP of thick copper films is investigated. The selected slurry components for copper CMP are citric acid, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), abrasive, and benzotriazole (BTA). The carbon intensity of each slurry component is estimated from previously reported studies. During the experiments, the material removal rates (MRRs) are measured for various compositions of the slurry. The CDE is obtained by measuring electric energy, slurry, and ultrapure water (UPW) consumptions. We find that citric acid and BTA positively and negatively influence the CDE, respectively. Further, 2 wt.% of H2O2 and 4 wt.% of abrasive result in the lowest values of the CDE in thick copper CMP.

Keywords

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) Thick copper film Environmental impact Slurry component Carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) 

Nomenclature

CDEcycle

Carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) of one cycle of CMP process

CDEe

Total CDE of electric energy consumption

CDEs

Total CDE of slurry consumption

CDEU

Total CDE of ultrapure water (UPW) consumption

CDEetc

Total CDE of other consumables

Econ

Electric energy consumption during idling, conditioning, wetting, wafer loading and unloading, and rinsing

Ep

Electric energy consumption during polishing step

Ge

Global warming potential (GWP) of electric energy consumption

Sw

Slurry flow rate for wetting

tw

Process time for wetting

Sp

Slurry flow rate for polishing

tp

Process time for polishing

Is

Carbon intensity of slurry

Ui

UPW flow rates for idling

Uc

UPW flow rates for conditioning

Ur

UPW flow rates for rinsing

ti

UPW supplying time in idling

tc

UPW supplying time in conditioning

tr

UPW supplying time in rinsing

Iu

Carbon intensity of UPW

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Copyright information

© Korean Society for Precision Engineering 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Departsment of Mechanical EngineeringTongmyong UniversityBusanSouth Korea

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