Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 March 2011
Wehaveusedalargepatterntestmaskandaspecificarrangementofstructuresonawaferfor direct measurement of an average planarization length for copper chemical mechanical polishing (CMP)processes.Weproposenewminimum,maximum,andaverageplanarizationlengthdefini-tions, based on up and down area measurements as a function of trench width. The average pla-narizationlengthisusefulforqualitativelycomparingtheplanarizationcapabilityofcopperCMP processes. We have also performed several experiments that show how the average planarization length depends on polish process settings such as down force and relative speed, as well as on consumables such as pad and slurry.