Polishing compound and method for polishing substrate

Abstract

A polishing slurry and a polishing method which are suitably used in a CMP technique for flattening a surface of a substrate in a production process of a semiconductor device. The polishing slurry comprises particles and a medium in which at least a part of the particles are dispersed, wherein the particles are made of at least one of (1) a cerium compound selected from cerium oxide, cerium halide and cerium sulfide and having a density of 3 to 6 g/cm3 and an average particle diameter of secondary particles of 1 to 300 nm and (2) a tetravalent metal hydroxide. A polishing method using the polishing slurry takes advantage of a chemical action of particles in the polishing slurry and minimizes a mechanical action of the particles, thereby achieving a decrease in scratches caused by the particles and an increase in polishing rate at the same time.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.