Super fine cerium hydroxide abrasives for SiO₂ film chemical mechanical planarization performing scratch free

Face-centered-cubic crystallized super-fine (~ 2 nm in size) wet-ceria-abrasives are synthesized using a novel wet precipitation process that comprises a Ce⁴⁺ precursor, C₃H₄N₂ catalyst, and NaOH titrant for a synthesized termination process at temperature of at temperature of 25 °C. This process overcomes the limitations of chemical-mechanical-planarization (CMP)-induced scratches from conventional dry ceria abrasives with irregular surfaces or wet ceria abrasives with crystalline facets in nanoscale semiconductor devices. The chemical composition of super-fine wet ceria abrasives depends on the synthesis termination pH, that is, Ce(OH)₄ abrasives at a pH of 4.0-5.0 and a mixture of CeO₂ and Ce(OH)₄ abrasives at a pH of 5.5-6.5. The Ce(OH)₄ abrasives demonstrate better abrasive stability in the SiO₂-film CMP slurry than the CeO₂ abrasives and produce a minimum abrasive zeta potential (~ 12 mV) and a minimum secondary abrasive size (~ 130 nm) at the synthesis termination pH of 5.0. Additionally, the abrasive stability of the SiO₂-film CMP slurry that includes super-fine wet ceria abrasives is notably sensitive to the CMP slurry pH; the best abrasive stability (i.e., a minimum secondary abrasive size of ~ 130 nm) is observed at a specific pH (6.0). As a result, a maximum SiO₂-film polishing rate (~ 524 nm/min) is achieved at pH 6.0, and the surface is free of stick-and-slip type scratches.