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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.

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Abbreviations

CDE cycle :

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

CDE e :

Total CDE of electric energy consumption

CDE s :

Total CDE of slurry consumption

CDE U :

Total CDE of ultrapure water (UPW) consumption

CDE etc :

Total CDE of other consumables

E con :

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

E p :

Electric energy consumption during polishing step

G e :

Global warming potential (GWP) of electric energy consumption

S w :

Slurry flow rate for wetting

t w :

Process time for wetting

S p :

Slurry flow rate for polishing

t p :

Process time for polishing

I s :

Carbon intensity of slurry

U i :

UPW flow rates for idling

U c :

UPW flow rates for conditioning

U r :

UPW flow rates for rinsing

t i :

UPW supplying time in idling

t c :

UPW supplying time in conditioning

t r :

UPW supplying time in rinsing

I u :

Carbon intensity of UPW

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  1. Departsment of Mechanical Engineering, Tongmyong University, 428, Sinseon-ro, Nam-gu, Busan, 48520, South Korea

    Hyunseop Lee

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  1. Hyunseop Lee
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Lee, H. Environmental impact of concentration of slurry components in thick copper CMP. Int. J. of Precis. Eng. and Manuf.-Green Tech. 4, 13–18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-017-0002-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-017-0002-5

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