The Effect of Slurry Composition and Flatness on Sub-Surface Damage and Removal in Chemical Mechanical Polishing of 6H-SiC

The effect of slurry composition and wafer flatness on a material removal rate (MRR) and resulting surface roughness which are evaluation parameters to determine the CMP characteristics of the on-axis 6H-SiC substrate were systematically investigated. 10 x 10 mm2 6H-SiC substrates and 2-inch SiC wafers fabricated from the ingot grown by a conventional physical vapor transport (PVT) method are used for this study. The SiC substrate after the CMP process using slurry added oxidizers into slurry consisted of KOH-based colloidal silica and nano-size diamond particle exhibited the significant MRR value and a fine surface without any surface damages. SiC wafers having high bow value after the CMP process exhibited large variation in surface roughness value compared to wafer with low bow value. The CMP-processed SiC wafer having a low bow value of 10m was observed to result in the MRR value of 0.15 m/h and the mean height (Ra) value of 0.772Ǻ.