SOW_CMP (Final) - Revised 06 May 2020.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK

CHEMICAL MECHANICAL PLANARIZATION SYSTEM

Background

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Detector Development Laboratory (DDL) produces multilayer circuits on 100 mm, 150 mm, and 200 mm silicon wafers for technology demonstrations and flight hardware of detector focal planes and other components. An essential tool required to build these circuits is a Chemical Mechanical

Planarization or Polishing (CMP) tool. Often a device requires deposition and patterning of multiple layers of metal and dielectric thin films, and fabrication yield may be severely degraded if subsequent layers need to cover step edges in non-planar topography resulting from prior layers. CMP planarizes (flattens) a substrate by removing surface material using simultaneous chemical and mechanical polishing processes so that processing of each layer begins with a flat substrate surface. In addition, CMP can enable new device geometries and smaller, self-aligned feature size critical to the performance of many devices for NASA applications.

A CMP tool is a stand-alone piece of equipment used to remove topography on wafers and substrates using a combination of chemical action from a liquid slurry and mechanical action from a polishing pad. It can be thought of as a nanoscale “grinder”, where the wafer and polishing pads are in contact under a few psi of pressure and rotating together at slightly different speeds, while the wafer also oscillates horizontally. Typically, this technology produces a sub-nanometer surface roughness as defined by the Root Mean Square (RMS) value.

New high-throughput CMP tools capable of 200 mm wafer polishing are very expensive;

however, we are looking here for a flexible system suitable for low-volume processing, which may potentially be a refurbished tool. Typically, refurbished tools date back to the early to mid-1990’s, and we have specified a number of refurbishment activities to restore the tool to its original manufacturer condition, plus some upgrades which have become available in the last 5-10 years.

A growing percentage of detectors and other devices that are fabricated in the DDL require

CMP processing. While we currently have access to CMP tools or foundry services, acquisition of a CMP tool for the DDL would improve quality control, throughput, and reliability of this key process for detector technology. In addition, this investment would reduce the overall cost of detector development.

Objectives

1. To procure a tool capable of performing Chemical Mechanical Planarization on substrates with diameters of 100 mm, 150 mm, and 200 mm, to be installed in the

NASA GSFC DDL.

2. To procure a system with a six-month, or longer, warranty for parts and labor, as well as meeting safety requirements of the GSFC facility.

Scope

The scope of this work includes production, delivery and startup of a CMP system to the

GSFC DDL. This includes the following:

a) design of the system at the vendor location,

b) approval of the design by the GSFC technical representative,

c) communicating facility requirements to GSFC for installation including electrical power needs, gases and water and other,

d) construction of the system at the vendor facility,

e) CMP process development, including the technology transfer of processes, based upon one or more sets of certain film types and configurations specified by GSFC,

f) testing of the system at the vendor facility,

g) disassembly of the system into components as may be needed for shipping and delivery into the laboratory at GSFC,

h) shipping the system to GSFC, where GSFC personnel will move it into the laboratory

i) reassembly of system components by vendor personnel,

j) installation of the system at GSFC by vendor personnel, with GSFC personnel to make necessary facility connections,

k) startup of the system at GSFC,

l) final acceptance test of the system in the DDL, with requirements agreed upon by both parties before the purchase order is awarded,

m) basic operations and preventative maintenance training of GSFC personnel in the

DDL by vendor,

n) identification of recommended spare parts,

o) obtaining a system that meets safety requirements of the GSFC facility, including compliance with the SEMI S2 standard.

Requirements

General

The vendor shall provide a system of either all new construction, or one refurbished or remanufactured to meet or exceed Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) specifications. No prototypes, or one-of-a-kind systems will be considered.

The unit shall be a commercially available model with at least 10 similar units working in the field, though customization to meet the requirements for this particular unit is allowable.

The equipment shall meet safety requirements of the GSFC facility, including compliance with the SEMI S2 standard.

In its operating configuration, the equipment shall have a footprint not to exceed 72” width, 97” depth, and 92” height. When disassembled into components for moving into the laboratory, the maximum component dimensions will not exceed 57” width, 97” length, and 82” height (including means of transport).

The system shall be built out of non-outgassing materials including paints and coatings

(no outgassing volatile organic compounds).

The system shall be equipped with an Emergency power off (EPO) switch.

Technical Requirements

The system shall meet the following specifications, process capabilities, and availability of spare parts:

1. CMP TOOL SPECIFICATIONS

a. The tool shall be a new or refurbished piece of equipment, restored in the latter case to an “as new” or upgraded condition, with the following items completed at a minimum:

i. Install new platen housings, bearings and races.

ii. Install new polish arm bearings and races.

iii. Install new or reprocessed platens, Teflon-coated and lapped

iv. Install new slurry pumps

v. Replace all valves, manifolds, tubing, and all parts having handled slurry chemistries in the past.

vi. Clean and paint frame if original shows signs of wear or corrosion

vii. Install new power supplies

viii. Install new operator interface panel

ix. Replace original high torque motors

x. Replace any original hard drives with solid state drives

b. The tool shall support wafer sizes of 100 mm, 150 mm, and 200 mm.

c. The tool shall be equipped with two polishing platens: one for primary polish and one for final “buff” polish.

i. The primary pad shall be fitted with an IC1000 polishing pad or equivalent.

ii. The final polish pad shall be equipped with a Polytex polishing pad or equivalent.

iii. Platen rotation speed: 10-175 rpm

d. The primary polishing platen shall be equipped with a removable platen top.

This will allow the user to quickly change over from one pad to another without having to remove the pad itself, thus saving both considerable time and expense.

e. Each of the two platens shall be equipped with two slurry dispensing heads.

i. Slurry flow rate: 100 ml/min-1000 ml/min

f. The polish head shall be capable of rotating and oscillating.

g. The tool shall be set up for cassette-to-cassette wafer handling for 100 mm and 150 mm wafers.

h. The tool shall be capable of in-situ pad conditioning.

i. The tool shall be equipped with a polish head clean station.

j. The tool shall be equipped with a high pressure deionized water rinse for primary and secondary polishing platens.

k. The tool shall be equipped with a motor current end point detection system.

l. The tool shall be equipped with membrane wafer carriers for 100 mm and 150 mm wafer sizes, which can be replaced/exchanged by operators, in order to provide uniform pressure to the backside of the wafer and reduce the total thickness variation (TTV) when removing large amounts of material. The vendor shall include an option for a wafer carrier for 200 nm wafer diameter.

i. Rotation speed: 10-125 rpm

m. The wafer carriers shall provide at least two zones of pressure control in the membrane contacting the wafer so as to ensure wafer flatness during polish.

i. Membrane pressure: 0.5-7 psi

n. In addition, the wafer carriers shall be equipped with a retaining ring, with separately adjustable pressure, in order to reduce the edge exclusion zone.

i. Ring pressure: 0.5-7 psi

2. OPTION

The vendor shall provide separate pricing for a field-retrofit option for future upgrade of the system to include a motor current end point detection system.

3. PROCESS CAPABILITY

The vendor shall be able to demonstrate the tool capability: removal rate (RR), within-wafer uniformity (WIWU) and wafer-to-wafer uniformity (WTWU) at their site and at

GSFC on 5 customer-supplied wafers.

The wafers shall be silicon, 100 mm in diameter, approximately 500 µm thickness and coated with approximately 350 nm of aluminum oxide deposited by atomic layer deposition. The aluminum oxide thickness will be highly uniform across the wafer, but in a few small locations (0.1 mm in extent) it will have small bumps, 0.2 µm high, that will later provide indication of the degree of planarization achieved by the CMP process. The initial aluminum oxide will have been measured and mapped over each wafer surface prior to delivery to the vendor. They will be mapped by ellipsometry at

GSFC before and after CMP removal of approximately 270 nm of aluminum oxide to determine the removal rate at 49 points, excluding the outer 5 mm around the circumference. The goal for the CMP process will be to remove 270 ± 27 nm of aluminum oxide uniformly and reproducibly across each wafer. The first requirement is that one standard deviation in amount of oxide removed is less than 10% of the mean value (i.e. 10% of 270 nm = 27 nm). For each of the five wafers, the standard deviation in the amount removed, evaluated for samples distributed over that wafer, shall not exceed the 10% value. Furthermore, the mean amount removed, calculated for each wafer, shall not vary more than 10% from the mean amount removed on any other wafer. From these measurements, the mean removal rate (mu) and its standard deviation (sigma) will be calculated for each wafer. The specifications shall be:

a. WIWU: Sigma/mu ≤ 10 % for each of the 5 wafers

b. WTWU: [max(mu)-min(mu)]/mean (mu) ≤ 10 % across the 5 wafers

4. PROCESS DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

The CMP system desired is for the purpose of fabricating a variety of detectors and devices at GSFC. The type of thin film material being subjected to CMP, and the initial surface structure, will vary between projects. Thin film materials of interest include aluminum oxide, gold, niobium, and niobium pentoxide. The vendor shall include an option for the vendor to assist in developing additional processes for use by NASA on the CMP system purchased. Vendors shall include a list of materials for which the vendor has experience and is willing to admit in their process development facility.

5. SPARE PARTS

The vendor shall quote a detailed listing of spare parts sufficient for 12 months of preventative maintenance including, at a minimum, any of the following items used in the system:

a. Slurry tubing

b. O-rings

c. Pressure sensors

d. Proximity sensors

e. Fiber optic amplifier

f. Regulators

g. Pumps

h. Valves

i. Spacers

j. Wafer retaining rings

k. Membranes

The vendor shall provide a detailed listing of recommended spare parts, to include individual item descriptions, part numbers, and prices (in the format identified in

Attachment A: Spare Parts Listing). The listing shall be sufficient for 12 months of preventative maintenance of the system. The Government will have the option to purchase parts selected from this list, at the prices given, up to a total value not to exceed (NTE) $20,000.

Warranty / Technical support

At a minimum, the vendor shall provide a 6-month warranty on all parts and labor, beginning after final acceptance of the system at GSFC. The vendor shall guarantee functionality of the system, as defined by the state of the system at final acceptance, for at least 6 months after acceptance of the system. This will include replacement of failed parts on the tool, troubleshooting of problems with the system via phone consultation, as well as site visits to restore the system if it is non-functioning. Vendor shall provide servicing visits in a timely fashion.

Delivery Schedule

Delivery schedule begins at Date of Award (DA).

DA+10 weeks: Vendor shall report status to GSFC technical representative on progress toward completing unit. Vendor shall finalize all requirements for installation at GSFC so that technical representative can arrange for any modifications required at GSFC.

DA+20 weeks: Construction of system shall be completed. Vendor shall contact GSFC technical representative to determine how to proceed with factory acceptance of unit prior to shipping.

DA+22 weeks: Vendor shall ship unit to GSFC for installation and arrange for visit to

GSFC for assembly and demonstration of unit, and training of NASA GSFC DDL personnel on use of unit.

DA+30 weeks: Vendor shall complete assembly and demonstration of unit, and training of NASA GSFC DDL personnel on use of unit. This shall be considered final acceptance of the system.

Documentation and training

Vendor shall provide both hard copy (1) and soft copy manuals for operation and maintenance of the tool at time of system delivery. This shall include documentation of all hardware in the system including hard copy (1) versions of any settings associated with the hardware, operation and maintenance.

Payment schedule and milestones

Vendor will receive 40%50% of contract payment, excluding the NTE amount for spare parts, upon contract award and submission of invoice.

Vendor will receive 40% of contract payment, excluding the NTE amount for spare parts, upon acceptance of tool at factory by NASA GSFC technical representative, by agreed upon method (either site visit or other demonstration), and submission of invoice.

Vendor will receive remaining 20%10% of contract payment, excluding the NTE amount for spare parts, upon completion of installation, training at NASA GSFC, final acceptance of the system and submission of invoice.

Government-Furnished Equipment and Government-Furnished Information

There will be no Government Furnished Equipment or Government Furnished

Information provided under this requirement.

Security

Vendor shall provide all necessary documents or information to GSFC technical representative to acquire access to the GSFC site.

Place of Performance

Work shall be performed both at the vendor site, where the unit will be designed, built, and factory acceptance tested, and at NASA GSFC where the unit will be installed and demonstrated for training and final acceptance purposes.

Period of Performance

The period of performance of this work is thirty (30) weeks from the date of contract award. The period of performance shall be 8 months from date of contract award plus the vendor’s proposed warranty period. As such the period of performance is from contract award through To Be Proposed (TBP).