Basic Patent Granted for Hitachi Chemical's CMP Slurry Based on Self-Activated Cerium Oxide Particles.TOKYO -- Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:4217)(President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. : Yasuji Nagase; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 15.3 billion yen) has obtained a basic patent of its CMP CMP (cytidine monophosphate): see cytosine. (1) (CMP Media LLC, Manhasset, NY, www.cmp.com) Part of United Business Media, CMP is a leading integrated media company that offers a wide variety of publications and services in the information slurry slurry, n a thin mixture of insoluble material floating in liquid. slurry solids in suspension. Used as a method of feeding pigs—slurry is pumped through fixed lines and delivered to troughs by hoses equipped with gasoline pump fittings. which is based on self-activated cerium cerium (sēr`ēəm) [from the asteroid Ceres], metallic chemical element; symbol Ce; at. no. 58; at. wt. 140.12; m.p. 799°C;; b.p. 3,426°C;; sp. gr. 6.77 at 25°C;; valence +3 or +4. oxide particles. When manufacturing semiconductor devices, the slurry allows the unnecessary silicon oxide layer on the wafer to be polished away at high rate with the minimum of scratches in the Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) process. CMP is a process for polishing and smoothing uneven surfaces of wafers (silicon oxide layer, interlayer Noun 1. interlayer - a layer placed between other layers layer, bed - single thickness of usually some homogeneous substance; "slices of hard-boiled egg on a bed of spinach" insulation film, wiring metal layer, etc.) generated in the device isolation or wiring process for semiconductors. CMP slurry is a type of polishing solution used for this application. Particularly in applications for polishing away silicon oxide layers, CMP slurries based on silica particles or cerium oxide particles have not been very successful in satisfying high removal rates and few scratches. As polishing scratches caused by CMP slurries lead to increased defectives, it has been critical to develop CMP slurries that allow faster removal rates with fewer scratches for improved productivity and reliability in manufacturing semiconductor devices for high-speed and highly-integrated circuits. By applying its ceramics manufacturing technology based on many years of experience, Hitachi Chemical has succeeded in developing CMP slurry composed of self-activated cerium oxide polishing particles, which allows high removal rate with the minimum of scratches. Cerium oxide particles in the CMP slurry have crystalline grain boundaries Grain boundaries The internal interfaces that separate neighboring misoriented single crystals in a polycrystalline solid. Most solids such as metals, ceramics, and semiconductors have a crystalline structure, which means that they are made of atoms which are . They disintegrate dis·in·te·grate v. dis·in·te·grat·ed, dis·in·te·grat·ing, dis·in·te·grates v.intr. 1. To become reduced to components, fragments, or particles. 2. under polishing pressures and provide newly activated surfaces which are ready to react chemically with the silicon oxide layer. CMP slurry based on this type of cerium oxide particles makes it possible to keep polishing scratches to a minimum while increasing the removal rate. We filed foreign counterpart in the U.S. and in the countries of Europe and Asia to provide worldwide patent protection and to differentiate our unique technology of the recently-developed CMP slurry based on self-activated cerium oxide particles. By active and effective utilization of the patent rights, we intend to reinforce our competitive edge from the intellectual property aspect as well. |
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