As integrated circuit and logic devices continue to decrease, limiting induced defectivity during Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) processes (polishing and substrate cleaning) is imperative. Defects resulting from the CMP process can be classified as mechanical (i.e., scratching), chemical (i.e., corrosion), or physiochemical (i.e., adsorbed contaminants) according to the mechanism of formation. Traditionally, a contact cleaning method implements a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) brush to transfer cleaning chemistry to the substrate of interest and provides the necessary mechanical energy for defect removal. While this process effectively removes contaminants, its reliance on shear forces can induce secondary defect modes, such as scratching. One major challenge for the post-CMP cleaning of Cu substrates is the polymeric residue film comprised of BTA-Cu+ complexes that propagate during the CMP polishing process. The current and most effective mode to mitigate this “residue defect” is coupling brush-induced shear force with additives that promote interfacial redox reactions to remove residues through an undercutting mechanism. This work focuses on developing a “softer” and additive structure-based approach that drives less aggressive interfacial shear between the brush and wafer substrate. More specifically, α-β-unsaturated additives with diverse functionality (i.e., -unsaturated carboxylic acids, carboxylic acids, and unsaturated benzaldehydes) will be tested to evaluate their efficacy to “overcut” the organic residue via a proposed aza-Michael addition reaction pathway. This “overcutting” mechanism relies on additional modes of interaction (i.e., p-stacking, H-bonding, conformational relationships, etc.) with the BTA- Cu+ polymeric residue film. A suite of dynamic techniques (i.e., Tafel analysis, OCP vs. time, contact angle, additive diffusion analysis, and shear force) will attempt to correlate the additive structure and reaction mechanism to organic residue removal efficiency and measured interfacial shear forces. Initial results have shown that implementing an “overcutting” mechanism will decrease the overall shear force and significantly reduce the generation of secondary defects without sacrificing overall defect removal efficiency.
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