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Chatter Surface Damage

Material Name: No data
Record No.: 51
Primary Chemical Element in Material: No data
Sample Type: Wafer
Uses: Polishing
Etchant Name: None
Etching Method: Polishing
Etchant (Electrolyte) Composition: No data
Procedure (Condition): No data
Note: Typically, chatter mark-type scratches, which have a repetitive C-shaped crack, were generated in interlevel dielectric (ILD) materials (Fig. 1). In this image, the cracks are larger at one end and smaller at the other end of the repetitive line. Furthermore, the repetitive C-shaped surface showed damage that is tens of nm deep with some individual cracks that were deeper than others, in atomic force microscope (AFM) images. Ring et al. explained this phenomenon based on bouncing particle model. The springiness of the pad causes the particle to bounce against the wafer surface. Bouncing may be initiated by a particle impurity that is sliding across the surface of the wafer. After the first bounce, the particles have sufficient force to indent the surface of the wafer. This force is supplied by the elastic properties of the pad when the particle is pushed into it and then rebounds. The frequency of bounces can be determined by the simple physics of a mass (the particle) on a spring (the pad).
Reference: Tae-Young KWON, Manivannan RAMACHANDRAN, Jin-Goo PARK, Scratch formation and its mechanism in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), Friction 1(4): 279–305 (2013).


Figure 1: Chatter surface damage showing repetitive, 40-nm-deep indentations in the wafer surface.