AVS 51st International Symposium
    Thin Films Monday Sessions
       Session TF-MoP

Paper TF-MoP15
Chemical Mechanical Polishing Characteristics of SnO2 Thin Film for Gas Sensor Application

Monday, November 15, 2004, 5:00 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: K.W. Choi, Chosun University, South Korea
Authors: Y.J. Seo, DAEBUL University, South Korea
K.W. Choi, Chosun University, South Korea
W.S. Lee, Chosun University, South Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
The metal oxide has been increasing interest for application of advanced technology. Of these oxides, tin dioxide (SnO2) is of interest as an oxidation catalyst, gas sensor material, thin film micro-battery, and transparent conductor. For the application of tin oxide films, the controls of microstructure and surface morphology are required because the electrical and optical properties are dependent on them. Although there have been many reports on the formation or smoothing of hillocks of the thin films, those works still report lack consistency. Hillocks on thin film surfaces deteriorate light reflection, ultra large-scale integration (ULSI) pattern resolution, and device performance because they are dependent on surface morphology or roughness. A chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is a useful method for removing sub-microscale hillocks. Therefore, an understanding and control of microstructure and surface morphology are required for the advanced application of tin oxide films. In this paper, we report the CMP effects on the variation of morphology for tin oxide films prepared by RF sputtering system. In order to compare the polishing characteristics of SnO2 thin film, we investigated the CMP removal rate (RR) and within-wafer non-uniformity (WIWNU%), particle size distribution, and the microstructures of surface and cross-sectional layer by atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. This work was supported by a Korea Research Foundation grant (KRF-2002-005-D00011).