Chemical-mechanical processing slurry and methods for processing a nickel substrate surface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10792785-B2
Application number	US-201715615591-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2017
Priority date	Jun 7, 2016
Publication date	Oct 6, 2020
Grant date	Oct 6, 2020

Abstract

Described are slurry compositions useful in chemical-mechanical processing of a nickel layer of a substrate, wherein the slurry compositions contain abrasive particles that include silica particles that are cationically charged at a low pH.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of treating a nickel-phosphorus surface at a low pH, the method comprising:
providing a substrate having a nickel-phosphorus surface,
providing a slurry having a pH below 3, the slurry comprising:
liquid carrier,
cationic silica abrasive particles dispersed in the liquid carrier, the cationic silica abrasive particles containing cationic compound that is a nitrogen-containing compound or a phosphorus-containing compound, wherein the silica abrasive particles exhibit a zeta potential in a range from 5 to 60 millivolts in the slurry at the slurry pH, and
oxidizing agent, and

contacting the substrate surface with the slurry to remove nickel-phosphorus material from the surface.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the silica abrasive particles exhibit a zeta potential in a range from 10 to 50 millivolts in the slurry.

3. The method of any of claim 1 wherein the slurry contains abrasive particles that include at least 95 weight percent silica particles based on total weight abrasive particles, and the silica particles contain at least 60 weight percent cationic silica particles based on total weight silica particles.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the slurry contains abrasive particles that include less than 5 percent by weight alumina particles based on total weight abrasive particles.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cationic silica abrasive particles have a particle size of a least 50 nanometers.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the cationic compound is an aminosilane compound.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the aminosilane compound is aminopropyltrimethoxysilane.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the slurry pH is below 2.

Assignees

• Cabot Microelectronics Corp

Inventors

• Zhang Ke

Classifications

• C09G1/02

  containing abrasives or grinding agents {(abrasives as such C09K3/14; polishing of semi-conductors H10P52/40)} · CPC title

• C09K3/1463

  Aqueous liquid suspensions · CPC title

• B24B37/044 Primary

  characterised by the composition of the lapping agent · CPC title

• C09K3/1472

  Non-aqueous liquid suspensions · CPC title