Ceria-Based Slurries for Non-Prestonian Removal of Silicon Dioxide Films

Abstract

A slurry with a non-Prestonian dependence on the polishing pressure can help in minimizing dishing and erosion during shallow trench isolation chemical mechanical planarization. Here, we show that ceria-based slurries containing diallyldimethylammonium chloride (DADMAC) yield a non-Prestonian blanket film polish rate with a low threshold pressure (1–2 psi) when polishing plasma-enhanced chemical vapor (PECVD) tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) deposited oxide as well as thermal oxide films. The polishing mechanism of this non-Prestonian slurry was investigated by a series of experiments involving zeta potential measurements, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and UV-vis spectroscopy and it was shown that more DADMAC molecules are adsorbed on silica particles (as oxide film representatives) than on ceria particles and the binding strength between DADMAC and silica is much higher than that with ceria surface.