Study on Effect of Composite Particles in Polishing Process and Its Mechanism

In this paper, mixed slurries containing silica abrasives and polystyrene (PS) polymer particles in deionized water at pH 10.5 have been evaluated for silicon wafer polishing. By applying the theory of electric double layer model, the effect of the particle interactions in mixed slurry is investigated. Zeta potential measurements and TEM images have been used to show the formation of composite particles. The polishing mechanism with composite particles slurries is discussed. Polishing experiments with the mixed slurries formed by coating smaller (~30nm) abrasives onto softer and larger (~2000nm) polymer particles have shown the superior characteristic with higher removal rate and high surface quality.