Mathematical model-based evaluation methodology for environmental burden of chemical mechanical planarization process

Abstract

Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) is an essential manufacturing process in semiconductor fabrication. Chipmakers continue to adopt CMP for device planarization or surface finishing of substrate materials. Evaluating the environmental impact of the CMP process may contribute to the greening of the semiconductor process. In this paper, we propose a mathematical model-based evaluation method to determine the environmental burden of the CMP process. We adopted our previously reported material removal rate (MRR) model for CMP and modified it to incorporate the effect of the slurry flow rate and process temperature. The established model was compared with the experimental results. The environmental burden of the CMP process was evaluated by converting the electric energy consumption, slurry consumption, and ultrapure water (UPW) consumption into their carbon dioxide equivalents (CDEs). The results showed that the slurry consumption strongly impacted the CDE of the CMP process. The results of this study may help optimize the process parameters for a sustainable CMP process.