Simulation of slurry residence time during chemical-mechanical polishing using 3-D computational fluid dynamics

Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) is commonly used in semiconductor fabrication for flattening wafer surfaces. The study uses 3-D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to in-vestigate slurry flow dynamics during CMP in a wafer-to-pad zone. Three fluids, used slurry, tracer and fresh incoming slurry, are marked in a wafer-to-pad zone to reveal the fluid dynamics influenced by the operational parameters including pad speed of 30-120 RPM, wafer speed of 30-120 RPM, pad to wafer center-to-center distance of 100-200 mm and wafer size of 100-200 mm and pad size of 610 mm. After validation, the computational model is applied to investigate slurry flow fields with comprehensive operational condi-tions that were not previously studied but are of significant concern in energy saving and CMP process yields.(c) 2023 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.