Papers by Keyword: Chemo-Mechanical Grinding (CMG)

Abstract: In recent semiconductor industry, production of ever flatter, thinner and larger Si wafer are required to fulfill the demands in high integration and cost reduction. A severe problem encountered in wafer thinning process is the warp and distortion of wafer induced by the residual stress and subsurface damage. Chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) process is emerging process which combines the advantages of fixed abrasive machining and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), offers a potential alternative for stress relief. This paper studies the influence of the wheel manufacturing process on the wheel physical properties. Three-factor two-level full factorial designs of experiment are employed to reveal the main effects and interacted effects of mixing method and filtration of raw materials on the bending strength and elastic modulus of CMG wheel. The difference in wheel properties is discussed by association with CMG performance including wheel wear, grinding force and surface roughness.

Abstract: As a new fixed-abrasive machining method, chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) is developed from chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), with the obvious advantage of geometric accuracy determinacy and no slurry. To improve material removal rate and enhance the popularity of CMG, this paper introduces a combined grinding method, i.e., two dimensional ultrasonic vibration assisted CMG (2D-UACMG). Si wafer is taken as the workpiece and the influence of ultrasonic vibration modes and process parameters on the surface roughness and the material removal is examined. The results show 2D-UACMG can obtain better surface quality with little surface damage at nanometer level compared with the conventional CMG without the ultrasonic vibration.

Abstract: The demand for extremely-thin Si wafers is expanding. Current manufacturing technologies are meeting great challenges with the continuous decrease in Si wafer thickness. In this study, a novel single step thinning process for extremely thin Si wafers was put forward by use of an integrated cup grinding wheel (ICGW) in which diamond segments and chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) segments are alternately allocated along the wheel periphery. The basic machining principle and key technologies were introduced in detail. Grinding experiments were performed on 8-in. Si wafers with a developed ICGW to explore the minimal wafer thickness and grinding performance. The experimental results indicate that the proposed grinding process with the ICGW is an available thinning approach for extremely thin Si wafer down to 15μm

Abstract: Chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) process is a promising process for large-sized Si substrate fabrication at low cost. An encountered issue in current CMG process of Silicon (Si) wafers is metallic contaminations on ground Si wafer surface, which is attributed to the existence of sodium carbonate in wheel compounds. In this paper, four different CMG wheels were developed and grinding experiments were conducted to study the effects of exclusion of sodium carbonate and concentration of ceria abrasive on grinding performance. The grinding characteristics of the four wheels were analysized and discussed to reveal the effects of different compositions.

Abstract: This paper reports a molecular dynamics simulation of chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) of silicon wafer by controlling the interatomic potential parameters to imitate the chemo-mechanical or mechano-chemical reactions between an abrasive grain and a Si wafer. Some comparisons between diamond grinding and CMG were made by using the proposed simulation model. From the simulation results, reductions of surface damages, wears of abrasive grain and scratching forces in CMG were confirmed to be same as observed in actual experiments by a CeO2 abrasive wheel, and the availability of proposed simulation model was verified.

Abstract: An innovative fixed abrasive grinding process of chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) by using soft abrasive grinding wheel (SAGW) has been recently proposed to achieve a damage-free ground workpiece surface. The basic principle, ideas and characteristics of CMG with SAGW are briefly introduced in this paper. The CMG experiments using newly developed SAGW for Si wafer are conducted at the condition of dry grinding. The grinding performances are evaluated and analyzed in terms of surface roughness, surface topography and surface/subsurface damage of ground wafer by use of Zygo interferometer, Scan Introduction ning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Cross-section Transmission Electron Microscope (Cross-section TEM). The component of product of ground Si surface is studied by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) to verify chemical reaction between the abrasive / additives of grinding wheel and Si wafer. The CMG process model by using SAGW is developed to understand the material removal mechanism and generation principle of damage-free surface. The study results show that the material removal mechanism of CMG by using SAGW can be explained as a hybrid process of chemical and mechanical action.

Abstract: Silicon wafer thinning process is meeting great challenges to fulfill requirements of ultra-thin IGBT for automotive applications. Chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) process is potentially emerging stress relief thinning process which combines the advantages of fixed abrasive machining and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). A major issue in CMG of Si wafers is the relatively low material removal rate (MRR). This paper studies the influence of the wheel specifications and grinding conditions on the MRR of CMG. Two sets of three-factor two-level full factorial designs of experiment (DOE)[1] are employed to reveal the main effects and interacted effects of CMG wheel specifications and grinding parameters on MRR. The optimal combination scenarios for improving MRR of CMG are analysized and obtained. By use of the optimal CMG wheel and grinding parameters, the MRR of more than 60nm/min is achieved.

Abstract: Silicon (100) substrates machined by chemo-mechanical-grinding (CMG) and chemicalmechanical- polishing (CMP) were investigated using atomic force microscopy, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and nanoindentation. It was found that the substrate surface after CMG was slightly better than machined by CMP in terms of roughness. The transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that the CMG-generated subsurface was defect-free, but the CMP specimen had a crystalline layer of about 4 nm in thickness on the top of the silicon lattice as evidenced by the extra diffraction spots. Nanoindentation results indicated that there exists a slight difference in mechanical properties between the CMG and CMP machined substrates.

Abstract: In this paper, the surface and subsurface of silicon wafers ground by different wheels have been studied. In the conventional grinding with diamond wheels, it is shown from the top that the subsurface of wafer consists of amorphous Si, followed by a thin damaged layer, strained crystal with a large compressive residue stress, and then the bulk material in single crystal. In a severe condition which causes grinding burn, part of amorphous Si is re-crystallized to form a poly-crystal Si, and part of amorphous Si possibly reacts with oxygen to form SiO2. This phenomenon becomes more pronounced in the backgrinding process with a fine grit diamond wheel when the conditions are improperly selected. In order to obtain a defect-free crystal Si structure in grinding, authors have proposed a new chemo-mechanical grinding (CMG) process which enables to remove Si from wafer but with no structure transformation induced to its surface.

Abstract: The single crystal of Si is still one of the most important candidates among other materials including Single crystals of SiC, GaN, C(diamond) or compound semiconductors. The innovative process as called CMG(Chemo-Mechanical-Grinding) for Si wafer has been recently developed which is different from conventional CMP(Chemo-Mechanical-Polishing ) process. The CMG process can be done under dry conditions using CeO2 based solid bulk abrasives. The microstructures for surface and subsurface of Si single crystal after CMG process were analyzed using TEM/EDX, AFM, MFP-3D Microscope. The mechanism of CMG process was also investigated by X-ray diffraction and ICP chemical analysis using products by chemical reaction between Si and CeO2 abrasives. The results showed that Si single crystal after CMG had, 1) no defects even Si lattice revel or mechanical imperfections,2) better surface roughness as compared to CMP process. The CMG mechanism concluded that CeO2 reacted with Si producing Ce-Si-O amorphous phase.