Recently, the rapid increase in the number of metallization layers in microelectronic devices couple with shrinking geometric has led to a dramatic increase in device topography. This leads to severe restrictions on subsequent lithography process by the limited Depth of Focus (DOF). As a result increased planarity is required to meet the technological challenges of the sub-half micron device generation. Among the existing planarization techniques, chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) is found to be the most promising technique to achieve global planarization and fulfil the stringent requirement of DOE In this thesis, the non-uniformity observed in chemomechanical polishing (CMP) is being investigated. The within-wafer non-uniformity due to chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) is classified into...[ Read more ]

Recently, the rapid increase in the number of metallization layers in microelectronic devices couple with shrinking geometric has led to a dramatic increase in device topography. This leads to severe restrictions on subsequent lithography process by the limited Depth of Focus (DOF). As a result increased planarity is required to meet the technological challenges of the sub-half micron device generation. Among the existing planarization techniques, chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) is found to be the most promising technique to achieve global planarization and fulfil the stringent requirement of DOE In this thesis, the non-uniformity observed in chemomechanical polishing (CMP) is being investigated. The within-wafer non-uniformity due to chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) is classified into radially symmetric (radial), and not radially symmetric (non-radial). The significance of these non-uniformities is identified through a series of CMP experiments, and solutions are proposed to reduce this non-uniformity. We also applied this technology for the first time to surface- micromachining. CMP technique is introduced for the fabrication of arbitrary three- dimensional structures for surface-micromachining; the structures of HKUST logo, a vertical spring and the "Golden Gate Bridge" are also demonstrated here.