Alternative CMP Pad

Thomas West, Inc.ight Pad 813 is a new, highly porous, softer pad for tungsten CMP processes. The pad's structure will enable the industry to solve many CMP performance problems, such as erosion, uniformity, and planarization, in addition to achieving high removal rates combined with low slurry consumption, resulting in a lower cost of ownership.

Planarization without dishing of the surrounding oxide has been a continuous challenge, especially for dense SRAM arrays. The pad achieves planarization of tungsten plugs in tight arrays by reducing the erosion of the separating dielectric material, silicon dioxide. The pad has reduced oxide erosion by more than 50 percent in field studies.

The pad is made from non-woven polyester fibers that are then coated with polyurethane, creating a more porous and softer pad. The material used for the pad allows the transport of aqueous solution throughout a continuous pore structure to regulate surface chemistry during CMP. With a different structure and process performance characteristics, the pad is able to achieve an increase of more than 100 percent efficiency from the slurry.

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