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US 8,575,022 B2Granted
Top corner rounding of damascene wire for insulator crack suppression
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsGregory S. Chrisman, Edward C. Cooney, III, Jeffrey P. Gambino, Zhong-Xiang He, Thomas L. McDevitt, Eva A. Shah
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Abstract
A structure and method for fabricating the structure that provides a metal wire having a first height at an upper surface. An insulating material surrounding said metal wire is etched to a second height below said first height of said upper surface. The metal wire from said upper surface, after etching said insulating material, is planarized to remove sufficient material from a lateral edge portion of said metal wire such that a height of said lateral edge portion is equivalent to said second height of said insulating material surrounding said metal wire.
Claims22
A method comprising:
- providing a metal wire within an insulating material;
- etching said insulating material to leave an exposed portion of said metal wire extending from said insulating material, said exposed portion having a central portion and distal edges;
- and
- polishing said exposed portion of said metal wire, after etching said insulating material, to round said distal edges of said exposed portion of said metal wire, said polishing removing corners of said exposed portion of said metal wire such that said distal edges are reduced to a level approximately equal to a surface of said insulating material after etching and leaving said central portion of said exposed portion of said metal wire extending from said insulating material, and
- said polishing comprising soft-pad Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) using between 2 to 4 Pascals of downward force, a wafer rotation between 50 to 150 revolutions-per-minute (RPM), a polish pad rotation between 50 to 150 RPM and a polish time between 15 to 45 seconds.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- planarizing a metal wire to a first height at an upper surface;
- etching an oxide material surrounding said metal wire to a second height below said first height of said upper surface;
- and
- planarizing said metal wire at said upper surface, after said etching said oxide material, to remove sufficient material from a lateral edge portion of said metal wire such that a height of said lateral edge portion is equivalent to said second height of said oxide material surrounding said metal wire,
- a central portion of said metal wire, opposite said lateral edge portion, extending to a third height above said second height, said third height being one of approximately equal to said first height and between said first height and said second height, and
- said planarizing after said etching said oxide material further comprising soft-pad Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) using between 2 to 4 Pascals of downward force, a wafer rotation between 50 to 150 revolutions-per-minute (RPM), a polish pad rotation between 50 to 150 RPM and a polish time between 15 to 45 seconds.
3 more elements
A method comprising:
- providing a metal wire within an insulating material;
- etching said insulating material to leave an exposed portion of said metal wire extending from said insulating material;
- and
- after etching said insulating material, polishing said exposed portion of said metal wire for a polish time between 15 to 45 seconds using soft-pad Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) to round edges of said exposed portion of said metal wire, said polishing removing corners of said exposed portion of said metal wire and leaving said exposed portion of said metal wire extending from said insulating material.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- planarizing a metal wire to a first height at an upper surface;
- etching an oxide material surrounding said metal wire to a second height below said first height of said upper surface;
- and
- after said etching said oxide material, planarizing said metal wire at said upper surface using soft-pad Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) for a polish time between 15 to 45 seconds to remove sufficient material from a lateral edge portion of said metal wire such that a height of said lateral edge portion is equivalent to said second height of said oxide material surrounding said metal wire,
- a central portion of said metal wire, opposite said lateral edge portion, extending to a third height above said second height, said third height being one of approximately equal to said first height and between said first height and said second height.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.