Chemically Assisted Polishing of Monocrystalline Silicon Wafer Si (100) by DDMAF

Abstract

The need for polishing silicon wafer is to obtain a smooth surface for sprucing the semiconductor devices on the wafer surface. Therefore the wafer surface should be extremely flat, mirror like and particle free. Currently chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is used in the polishing industry to polish silicon wafer. In CMP the chemical action weakens the atomic bonding of the wafer surface and the rotatory mechanical action assist the material removal. In the present work chemical etching of Si (100) with potassium hydroxide (KOH) and polishing with Double Disk Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (DDMAF) is proposed. Comparison is made for surface roughness while polishing Si (100) with DDMAF at different combination of polishing speed, working gap and mesh no. of alumina abrasive. The communication further extends a comparative study on surface morphology with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for unpolished sample and polished sample obtained at best combination of process parameters.