Method for producing co-planar surface structures

Abstract: A method for producing co-planar surface areas is disclosed. At first a first layer with at least one recess is provided. Onto the first layer a second layer is deposited over the entire area of the first layer wherein the second layer has a thickness greater than the depth of the recess. The second layer is composed of material different to the material of the first layer. The next step removes the second layer completely beyond the area of at least one recess. The remaining portion of the second layer is removed until the second layer is coplanar with the first layer.

Description: The invention relates to a method for producing co-planar surface structures. More particular, the invention relates to a method for producing co-planar surface structures which are used as a basis for the formation of additional structural elements having flat surfaces over a wide range. Advances in micromachining technology have given rise to a variety of Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) including light modulators for low cost display applications. Such modulators provide high-resolution, high operating speeds (kHz frame rates), multiple gray scale levels, color adaptability, high contrast ratio, and compatibility with VLSI technology. One such modulator has been disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 5,311,360, issued May 10, 1994 to Bloom et al., entitled "Method and Apparatus for Modulating a Light Beam". This modulator is a micromachined reflective phase grating. It consists of a plurality of equally spaced deformable elements in the form of beams suspended at both ends above a substrate thereby forming a grating. The deformable elements have a metallic layer that serves both as an electrode, and as reflective surface for incident light. The substrate is also reflective and contains a separate electrode. The disclosure in U.S. Patent No. 5,311,360 is silent about the efficiency decrease of the device if not all the beams of the device do not have a completely flat surface and the same cross section. As disclosed in U. S. No. 6,238,581, entitled "Process for Manufacturing an Electro-Mechanical Grating Device," chemical mechanical planarization can be used to advantageously accomplish the requirements of such a device namely; all the beams to have an optically flat surface, the same cross-section and a well defined beam to substrate distance, elimination of surface topography resulting in higher photo and dry etch yields as well as removing step coverage concerns. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has become a key technology as currently practiced in the semiconductor art for the planarization of metals and dielectrics and as taught in numerous U.S. Patents such as that by Chow et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,648, Carr et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,142, and Beyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,836. CMP provides full wafer planarization without additional masking or coating steps. The use of CMP is also disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 5,804,084, issued September 8, 1998 to Nasby et al., entitled "Use of Chemical Mechanical Polishing In Micromachining". The process suggested therein is for removing topography effects during fabrication of micromachines. A sacrificial oxide layer is deposited over a level containing functional elements (driving gear, liquid pump, etc.) with etched valleys between the elements such that the sacrificial layer has sufficient thickness to fill the valleys and extend thickness upwards to an extent that the lowest point on the upper surface of the oxide layer is at least as high as the top surface of the functional elements in the covered level. The sacrificial oxide layer is then polished down and planarized by CMP. Another level of functional elements is formed upon the new planarized surface. The teaching of his document does not provide a technique or a method how to get coplanar surfaces with the a CMP method. U. S. Patent No. 5,804,084 shows only a method which can bring a plurality of islands existing in one layer to a single level. There is no need to consider a dishing effect which happens during the production of two coplanar surfaces. However many of the micromachined structures typically fall into the regime of wide (>10µm wide) recesses and sparsely populated structures. One of the difficulties encountered with CMP planarization is the "dishing" effect, which occurs in the planarization of wide recesses (i.e., usually >10µm wide). The "dishing" effect during planarization results in thinning of the overfill layer in wide recesses resulting in a non-planar surface. The polish rate is affected by the topology of the surrounding areas with dishing becoming worse in sparsely populated regions. Dishing problems therefore present a severe manufacturing constraint in micromachining. The dishing phenomenon is illustrated by reference to the schematic cross-sectional diagrams of FIG.1a and FIG. 1b. Shown in FIG. 1a is a substrate 10 onto which a first layer 15 is deposited. A narrow recess 11 and the wide recess 12 are shown formed in the first layer 15. The surface of the first layer 15 will contain small areas 13 between recesses and large areas 14 between recesses. Deposited over the first layer 15 and into both the narrow recess 11 and the wide recess 12 is a blanket conformal fill layer 20. Shown in FIG. 1b is the results of planarizing through a conventional CMP planarization method the blanket conformal fill layer 20 as illustrated in FIG. 1a. As shown in FIG. 1b, the surface of the planarized filled recess 22 is substantially dished in comparison with the surface of planarized filled recess 21. There is also shown in FIG. 1b the presence of a fill residue layer 24 formed simultaneously over the small areas 13 and large areas 14 on the surface of the first layer 15 when the blanket conformal fill layer 20 is planarized through the CMP planarization method to form the planarized filled recesses 21 and 22. As is understood by a person skilled in the art, when planarizing large areas of the blanket conformal fill layer 20, generally of dimensions greater than about 1000 microns, the blanket conformal fill layer 20 will in addition to planarizing more rapidly over the wide recess 12 and forming a dish within the planarized filled recess 22 simultaneously also polish more slowly over the large area 14 on the surface of the first layer 15 and leave the fill residue layer 24 formed over the large area 14 on the first layer 15. Attempts to remove the fill residue layer 24 by further planarization will cause increased dishing of the planarized filled recesses 21 and 22. Fill residue layers such as the fill residue layer 24 are undesirable since they impede further device processing on the planarized surface. A method to limit dishing is used in U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,172, issued February 24, 1998, to Jang et al., entitled, " Self-Aligned Polish Stop Layer Hard Masking Method For Forming Planarized Aperture Fill Layers". A conformal polish stop layer is formed on top of the conformal fill layer. The conformal polish stop layer and the conformal aperture fill layer are then planarized through a first CMP planarization method until there is reached the lower planar region of the conformal polish stop layer, while simultaneously forming a patterned polish stop layer and a partially CMP planarized aperture fill layer. The patterned polish stop layer is then employed as a etch mask to form an etched partially CMP planarized aperture fill layer with a protrusion over the aperture, where the height of the protrusion compensates for a dish which would otherwise form when the etched partially CMP planarized aperture fill layer is planarized through a second CMP method to form a planarized aperture fill layer within the aperture. The teaching of this document requires a complicated process involving the deposition of an extra layer and two separate CMP planarization steps. The method of CMP in this teaching also requires relatively low selectivity between the fill layer and the polish etch stop layer. Therefore the polish etch stop layer final thickness is not well controlled. An Article by B.H. Roh et al. entitled "Easily Manufacturable Shallow Trench Isolation for Gigabit Dynamic Random Access Memory", Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Pt. 1,Vol.35 (1996), pp.1618-4623 describes a method to limit the dishing phenomenon in shallow trench isolation techniques. The oxide isolation layer is partially etched on a semiconductor active region prior to performing a planarization step. The result of this method is a planarized oxide surface. There is no need to create coplanar surfaces between a first layer and a second layer. Two other references that address chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) include : D1: EP-A-0 670 591 (MOTOROLA INC) 6 September 1995 (1995-09-06) and D2: US-A-5 173 439 (DASH SOMANATH ET AL.) 22 December 1992 (1992-12-22). D1 describes an improved CMP technique for etching tungsten in a semi-conductor device. Whereas, D2 describes a two-step CMP operation of forming wide dielectric-filled isolation trenches in semi-conductor substrates. It is an object of the present invention to provide a coplanar surface between at least two different materials by minimizing the dishing effect while ensuring complete removal of the fill material outside of the critical areas. Furthermore, the coplanarity of the surface is necessary in order to allow the formation of additional structures which require the flatness of the surface on which they are grown or built. The object is achieved by a method as defined in claim 1. An advantage of the inventive method is that the fill material outside the critical area is completely removed to ensure no residual fill material on that surface. The height differential between the pattern area and adjacent regions remains but the high points are a very small fraction of the total surface area being polished. The mechanical effect of the polish will be a more rapid removal of material from these non-critical areas. The total area affected by CMP is more uniform and the result in the pattern area is a more planar surface. The extent of coverage outside the pattern area may vary but need not extend much more than the alignment tolerance of the exposure unit used to pattern the fill layer. The subject matter of the invention is described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawing. Fig. 1a - 1b show the dishing phenomenon reference to the schematic cross-sectional views of multilayered structures; Fig. 2 is a partial perspective description of the method for producing coplanar surfaces, wherein a first fill material is applied to the first layer; Fig. 3a is a partial perspective description of the method for producing coplanar surfaces, wherein the fill material is partially etched; Fig. 3b is a partial perspective description of another method for producing coplanar surfaces which does not form part of the invention, wherein the fill material is partially etched but not removed completely from the area beyond the recess; Fig. 4 is a partial perspective description showing the coplanar surfaces; wherein the fill material is planarized; Fig. 5 is a partial perspective description of the method for producing coplanar surfaces, wherein a second fill material is applied to the first layer; Fig. 6 is a partial perspective description of the method for producing coplanar surfaces, wherein the second fill material is partially etched; Fig. 7 is a partial perspective description showing the finished coplanar surfaces; Fig. 8 shows a profilometer trace after the etching of the second layer as disclosed in Fig. 3a; Fig. 9 shows a profilometer trace after the CPM process of the second layer as disclosed in Fig. 3a; Fig. 10 shows a profilometer trace after the CPM process without the patterning as disclosed in Fig. 3a; Fig. 11 perspective, partially cut-away view of a mechanical grating device which does not incorporate the claimed invention; Fig. 12 is a cross-sectional view along a plane determined by the lines A-A and B-B as indicated in Fig. 11 to illustrate the layer built-up; Fig. 13 is a cross-sectional view along a plane determined by the lines A-A and B-B as indicated in Fig. 11 to illustrate the plane A-A indicated in Fig. 3 to illustrate etching of a channel; Fig. 14 is a cross-sectional view along a plane determined by the lines A-A and B-B as indicated in Fig. 11 to illustrate the deposition of a sacrificial layer; Fig. 15 is a cross-sectional view along a plane determined by the lines A-A and B-B as indicated in Fig. 11 to illustrate the patterning of the sacrificial layer exceeding area of the channel; and Fig. 16 is a cross-sectional view along a plane determined by the lines A-A and B-B as indicated in Fig. 11 to illustrate the coplanar surface. Referring to Figs. 2 through 7 which are perspective descriptions of the inventive method for producing at least one coplanar surface. The following description is limited to a device which has a limited number of recesses. According to Fig. 2, a first layer 26 is provided on a substrate 28 which has a first and a second recess 30 and 32 formed therein. The recesses 30 and 32 have a width W and a height H which is determined by the thickness of the first layer 26. The first and second recess 30 and 32 have a length which extends along the longitudinal axis of the substrate 28. The longitudinal direction of the substrate 28 is marked by an arrow L-L. On top of the first layer 26 a second layer 34 conformed to the first layer 26 is provided. The thickness of the second layer 34 is at least of the height H of the first or second recess 30 or 32. The applied second layer 34 defines a conformed recess 35 at the same location as the first and second recesses 30 and 32 in the first layer 26. Each conformed recess 35 in the second layer 34 defines a ground level 35a. The material used for the second layer 34 has to be different from the material of the first layer. Fig. 3a shows an intermediate stage of the present invention. The second layer 34 is removed completely except for an area beyond at least one recess 30 or 32 (here recess 30). The selective removal of the second layer 34 is carried out by an appropriate patterning process which is, for example, followed by an etching step. The removal of the second layer 34 exposes a top surface 36 of the first layer 26. How much material of a second remaining layer 34a extends beyond the recess 30 has to be adjusted to the setup parameters (pressure, slurry used, speed, etc.) of a CMP device (not shown). The width of the remaining second layer 34a has to have at least the width W of the recess 30. As mentioned above the device (as shown in Fig. 3a) is then subjected to a removing process of the remaining second layer 34a. The removing process used here is CMP. The removing process (see Fig. 4) lasts until only the first recess is filled with the material of the remaining second layer 34a. The second remaining layer 34a, filling the first recess 30, defines a surface 36a which is coplanar with the surface 36 of the first layer 26. In Fig. 3b, which does not form part of the invention, the second layer 34 is not removed completely from the area beyond at least one recess 30 or 32. The second layer 34 is removed form the area beyond recess 30 to such an extent that still material of the second layer 34 covers the first layer 26. The selective removal of the second layer 34 is carried out by an appropriate patterning process, which is, for example, followed by an etching step thereby defining a surface level 37a. The removal of the second layer 34 is stopped when the surface level 37a is coplanar with ground level 35a of the recess 35 of the remaining second layer 34a after partial removal of the second layer 34. The material used for the second layer 34 has to be different from the material of the first layer 26. The pattern, as shown in Fig 3b, is then subjected to the CMP. The removing process lasts until only the first and the second recess 30 and 32 are filled with the material of the remaining second layer 34. The following description of the process is part of the invention. Referring now to Fig. 5 a third layer 38 is applied on top of the first layer 24, thereby covering the surface 36 of the first layer 24 and the surface 36a of the remaining second layer 34a in the first recess 30. As mentioned above, the thickness of the third layer 38 is at least of the height H of the second recess 32. The material used for the third layer 38 has to be different from the material of the first layer 26. The material for the third layer 38 differs from the material of the remaining second layer 34a. The next process step is similar to the process step as disclose in Fig 3a. Now in Fig. 6 the third layer 38 is removed. In the present embodiment the third layer 38 is not removed from the area beyond the second recess 32. The selective removal of the third layer 38 is carried out by an appropriate patterning process which is, for example, followed by an etching step. The removal of the third layer 38 exposes again the top surface 36 of the first layer 26 and the top surface 36a of the remaining second layer 34a in the first recess 30. How much material of a remaining third layer 38a extends beyond the recess 32 has to be adjusted to the setup parameters (pressure, slurry used, speed, etc.) of a chemical mechanical planarizing device (not shown). The removing process of the remaining third layer 38a is done with CMP. The removing process (see Fig. 7) lasts until only the material of the remaining third layer 38a defines a surface 36b which is coplanar with the surface 36 of the first layer 26 and surface 36a of the remaining second layer 36b in the first recess 30. It is clear for a skilled person that the described method is to be carried out with a plurality of recesses. Figs. 8-10 show the improvement of surface quality achieved with the inventive method. The topography in Figs. 8-10 is in arbitrary units. The layer structure, used for the topography results, is comparable to the structure as shown in Fig. 2 and 3a. A first layer 26 of thermally grown silicon dioxide is applied to the substrate 28 and etched to define a 50µm wide recess 30. A second layer 34 consisting of polysilicon is then deposited. A Photoresist is patterned over the polysilicon to serve as an etch mask. The polysilicon is etched away defining a silicon dioxide surface 36 everywhere except in the recess 30 including 2 microns of remaining second layer 34a overlap between the polysilicon and silicon dioxide around the recess 30. Fig 8 shows a surface profilometer trace of such a feature after the photoresist etch mask is removed. The substrates proceed through CMP, which reduces the polysilicon height to match that of the silicon dioxide first layer 26. The removal rate of the polysilicon is much greater than the silicon dioxide removal rate, therefore, little oxide is lost; less than 5 nm. The removal rate of the polysilicon on the overlap regions is higher than in the recess regions resulting in a planar polysilicon surface that is coplanar with the silicon dioxide surface. Since the polysilicon was previously etched away in all other regions of the silicon dioxide, the purpose of the CMP process is limited to just planarizing the recess areas and not clearing the polysilicon off the silicon dioxide surface. Fig. 9 shows the surface topography around a 50µm wide recess after CMP. Without patterning the polysilicon first, heavy dishing results as illustrated in Fig. 10. The processing for both examples included Rodel SDE3000 slurry, Rodel IC1000 pad with a SubaIV subpad on a Strasbaugh 6DS-SP CMP tool. The CMP conditions included a table speed of 55 rpm, spindle speed of 50 rpm, down pressure of 20684 Pascal (3 PSI), and table temperature of 25°C. It is clear for a skilled person that variations and modifications of the CMP conditions be effected. The following part of the specification is given for information purposes only, but does not form part of the claimed invention. The method should be further discussed with respect to a mechanical grating device 100. Fig. 11 is a perspective, partially cut-away view of a mechanical grating device 100. The mechanically deformable structures of the mechanical grating device 100 are formed on top of a base 50. Fig. 7 discloses a mechanical grating device 100 which can be operated by the application of an electrostatic force. According to the fact that the actuation force of the mechanical gating device 100 is electrostatic, the base 50 comprises the several layers of different materials. The base 50 comprises a substrate 52. The material of the substrate 52 is chosen from the materials glass, plastic, metal and semiconductor materials. The substrate is covered by a bottom conductive layer 56. The thin bottom conductive layer 56 is necessary since it acts as an electrode for applying the voltage to actuate the mechanical grating device 100. The thin bottom conductive layer 56 is covered by a protective layer 58. The bottom conductive layer 56 is selected from the group consisting of aluminum, titanium, gold, silver, tungsten, silicon alloys, and indium tin oxide. Above the protective layer 58, a standoff layer 60 is formed which is followed by a spacer layer 65. On top of the spacer layer 65 a ribbon layer 70 is formed which is covered by a reflective layer 78. In this example the reflective layer 78 has also to be conductive in order to provide electrodes for the actuation of the mechanical grating device 100. The electrodes are patterned from the reflective and conductive layer 78. The spacer layer 65 has a longitudinal channel 67 formed therein. The longitudinal channel 67 comprises a first and second side wall 67a and 67b and a bottom 67c. The channel 67 is open to the top and covered by a first and a second set of deformable ribbon elements 72a and 72b. Each deformable ribbon element 72a and 72b spans the channel 67 and is secured to the surface of the spacer layer 65 on either side of the channel 67. The bottom 67c of the channel 67 is covered by a protective layer 58. As mentioned above, the ribbon layer 70 is covered by the reflective layer 78. The reflective layer 78 (conductive) is patterned such that there is a first and a second conducting region 78a and 78b. Both, the first and the second conductive region 78a and 78b have according to the patterning, a comb-like structure and are arranged at the surface of the mechanical grating 100 device in a inter-digitated manner. The first and second conductive region 78a and 78b are mechanically and electrically isolated from one another. According to the pattern of the reflective layer 78 the ribbon layer 70 is patterned in the same manner. As a result there are the first and the second set of deformable ribbon elements 72a and 72b spanning the channel 67 and in the direction of the channel 67 are arranged such that every other deformable ribbon element belongs to one set. Furthermore, the deformable ribbon elements 72a and 72b define a top surface 70a and a bottom surface 70b. It is important for the efficiency of the mechanical grating device that the top surface 70a and the bottom surface 70b of all deformable ribbon elements are coplanar. In the realization as shown in Fig. 11 a plurality of standoffs 61 are positioned on the bottom 67c of the channel 67. The standoffs 61 are patterned from the standoff layer 60 such that a group of standoffs 61 is associated only with the deformable ribbon elements 72a and 72b of the first or the second set. In the realization shown here, the group of standoffs 61 is associated with the second set of deformable ribbon elements 72b. The standoffs 61 may also be patterned in the form of a single bar. Referring to Fig. 12, the mechanical grating device 100 (the following description is limited to an electromechanical device) is fabricated using standard microelectronic thin-film processing, the substrate 52 is a single crystal silicon wafer. Although the silicon is a conducting material, ion implantation can be used to increase the conductivity near a surface 53 defined by the base 50 confinement within the base 50. The implantation results in a highly conducting thin region 56 designated as the ground plane of the electrical circuit (not shown) at the surface 53 of the base 50. The protective layer 58 of thermal oxide is grown at the surface 53 of the base 50. Next, a standoff layer 60 of silicon nitride is deposited. The standoff layer 60 defines an upper surface 54a which will be used to define an actuation height resulting from the operation of the mechanical device 100. Next, a spacer layer 65 of silicon oxide deposited by chemical vapor deposition is added. The total height of the actuation is defined by the thickness of the spacer layer 65 having an upper surface level 64a. The next step is illustrated in Fig. 13, showing the patterning of the spacer layer 65 using standard photolithographic processing and etching methods to define the channel 67 where the active region of the mechanical device 100 will be located. The standoff layer 60 is then patterned using photolithographic processing and etching methods to produce silicon nitride standoffs 61, as illustrated in Fig. 13. Although not illustrated, these patterns can consist of pedestals or lines. The standoffs 61 act as mechanical stops for the actuation of the device and the upper surface of the standoffs 61 is surface 54a. To allow the additional layers atop the existing structure, a conformal sacrificial layer 66 of polycrystalline silicon is deposited to a thickness greater than the separation of surfaces 54a and 64a as illustrated in Fig. 14. The deposited sacrificial layer 66 shows a conform recess 68a in the area of the channel 67 which is located beneath the deposited sacrificial layer 66. The next step, as illustrated in Fig. 15, is the removal of the sacrificial layer 66 from the device 100 completely except an area beyond the channel 67. The selective removal of the sacrificial layer 12 is carried out by an appropriate patterning process, which is, for example, followed by an etching step. The removal of the sacrificial layer 66 exposes a top surface 64 of the spacer layer 65. How much material of a remaining sacrificial layer 66a extends beyond the area of the channel 67 has to be adjusted to the setup parameters (pressure, slurry used, speed etc.) of a chemical mechanical polishing device (not shown). The width of the remaining sacrificial layer 66a has to have at least the width of the channel 67. Fig. 16 illustrates the planarization of the remaining sacrificial layer 66a to a level substantially near the surface 64a using chemical mechanical polishing methods. The removing process (see Fig. 16) lasts until only the channel 67 is filled with the material of the remaining sacrificial layer 66a. The remaining sacrificial layer 66a, filling the channel 67, defines a surface 68b which is coplanar with the surface 64a of the spacer layer 65. The coplanar surface allows now the built up of further structures which have also well defined surfaces.

Claims: A method for producing co-planar surface areas comprising the steps of: a) providing over a substrate (28) a first layer (26) with at least two recesses, wherein said recesses have a depth defined by the thickness of the first layer; b) depositing a second layer (34) over the entire area of the first layer wherein the second layer has a thickness greater than the depth of the recesses and is composed of a different material than the first layer, characterized by further steps of: c) removing the second layer completely, except in the area of at least one recess; d) removing the remaining portion of the second layer by chemical-mechanical polishing until the second layer is coplanar with the first layer; and e) repeating step b) to d) with a third layer (38) of a material different from the materials of the first and second layers until all the recesses provided by the first layer are co-planar with the first layer. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the removing of the second layer is done such that there is overlap of the second layer with the first layer beyond the recess. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the overlap of the second layer with the first layer beyond the recess is in the range between 0.2 and 5 microns. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of removing the second layer comprises: providing an etch mask to protect the material of the second layer within the area of the recess; etching the area of the second layer unprotected by the etch mask to completely expose the first layer; and removing the etch mask. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first layer is silicon dioxide. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the second layer is polysilicon. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the width of the recess is between 10 and 200 microns.

Inventors: BRAZAS JOHN C JR, JECH JOSEPH JR, LEBENS JOHN A, BRAZAS, JOHN C., JR., JECH, JOSEPH, JR., LEBENS, JOHN A., Brazas, John C., Jr., Patent Legal Staff, Jech, Joseph, Jr., Patent Legal Staff, Lebens, John A., Patent Legal Staff
Applicants: EASTMAN KODAK CO, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY
Application year: 1999
Main classification: B81C1
IPC codes: B81C1, H01L21