Grinder and CMP Tool Specifications_December_18_2024.pdf

Wafer Grinder and Chemical Mechanical Polisher (CMP) Tool Specifications

Description: Code 6880 requires commercially available tools that consist of a grinding system and chemical mechanical polisher (CMP) to remove up to 345 µm of semiconductor substrates from bonded or unbonded wafers. Both systems must support wafer diameters between 75 mm and 150 mm. The grinder must have the capability to apply differential pressure across the substrate to achieve very low total thickness variation (TTV). Automatic process grinding is needed between the coarse and fine wafer grinding. Feedback controls are required to measure the thickness of samples. The CMP process must provide consistent and reproducible results from wafer-to-wafer and batch-to-batch. There must be low surface roughness (< 5 Å ) after the polishing process for all materials.

Specific Requirements:

• The tools shall have demonstrated the ability to grind and polish SiC wafers with TTV of 1 µm for single wafers

• The contractor shall provide demonstrations of grinding and polishing of 5 SiC/SiO2/Si bonded wafer stacks and 5 SiC/SiO2/SiC bonded wafer stacks

• Coarse and fine grinding must have a surface roughness of < 50 nm.

• Grinding system and processes must leave no edge chips when reduce wafer thickness by 50 µm

• The grinder shall have manual loading fixtures

• Ex-situ digital measurements are required to provide consistent wafer-to-wafer thicknesses

• The tool shall have force-sensitive infeed mechanics to reduce sub-surface damage during grinding

• Air bearings and submicron feed rates are required to improve surface finish during grinding

• The tools shall be capable of handling 75 mm, 100 mm and 150 mm diameter wafers

• The surface roughness after CMP must be < 5 Å

• The grinding tool shall be able to remove at least 345 µm of SiC material

• CMP of SiC shall be capable of removing up to 3 µm in a single run

• The CMP system shall have a spraying feature to clean slurry from polishing pad

• The CMP shall have a slurry delivery system

• There shall be a vacuum system to transfer wafers

• The CMP system shall have programmable pad conditioning to produce consistent removal rates and improved uniformity

• A multi-stage filtration system shall filter particles up to 0.1 µm in the wastewater from the grinding tool at flow rates up to 12 gpm

• The contractor shall provide on-site installation and training

• The contractor shall provide a warranty on all systems (including parts and labor) for at least 12 months