This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-224491, filed on Nov. 4, 2014; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device.
Conventionally, there is a semiconductor device which can be reduced in occupancy area by stacking semiconductor chips in multi stages. The semiconductor device is, for example, manufactured by bonding substrates in multi stages in which semiconductor elements and integrated circuits are formed, and by dicing the substrates in a unit of semiconductor chip.
An insulating layer is provided in the surface of each substrate to be bonded, and a plurality of electrodes are provided at positions corresponding to the surfaces of the respective insulating layers by bonding the substrates. However, there may be formed a metal oxide film in the surface of the electrode due to natural oxidation. In such a case, when the substrates are bonded to each other, a bonding failure may occur in a bonding portion between the electrodes.
According to this embodiment, there is provided a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. The method of manufacturing the semiconductor device includes forming an opening in a surface of an insulating layer that is provided in each surface of a first substrate and a second substrate. The method includes filling the opening with metal. The method includes activating the surface of the insulating layer. The method includes cleaning a surface of the metal filled in the opening of the first substrate using carbonated water. The method includes connecting the filled metal of the first substrate and the filled metal of the second substrate by bonding the insulating layer of the first substrate and the insulating layer of the second substrate.
The method of manufacturing the semiconductor device according to an embodiment will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Further, the present invention is not limited by the embodiment. In the following, the description will be made about an example of a so-called Wafer on Wafer in which the first substrate formed with a logic circuit and the second substrate formed with an image sensor are bonded. However, the method of manufacturing the semiconductor device according to this embodiment can also be employed to Chip on Wafer or Chip on Chip. Further, a circuit formed in the first substrate or the second substrate is not limited to the logic circuit or the image sensor, but may be arbitrary semiconductor integrated circuit.
First, a manufacturing procedure of an electrode in the insulating layer provided in the surface of the substrate will be described with reference to
Therefore, the description herein will be made about the forming procedure of the electrode in the insulating layer of the first substrate, and a detailed description on the forming procedure of the electrode in the insulating layer of the second substrate will not be given. In
As illustrated in
In a case where the electrode is formed in the first substrate 10, as illustrated in
Subsequently, as illustrated in
Subsequently, after removing the resist film 12, for example, a barrier metal or a seed metal (not illustrated) is formed by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) in the surface of the insulating layer 11 formed with the opening 13. Then, copper is precipitated by electrolytic plating so as to fill the opening 13, and a metal layer 14 illustrated in
Thereafter, for example, the surface of the metal layer 14 is polished by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to remove the metal layer 14, the barrier metal, or the seed metal (not illustrated) from the surface of the insulating layer 11. Therefore, as illustrated in
Until the bonding is performed, the first substrate 10 and the second substrate formed with the electrodes 15 are stored and kept in a sealed vessel called a front opening unified pod (FOUP). Further, in a case where the first substrate 10 and the second substrate are kept, for example, the natural oxidation of the electrode 15 is suppressed by purging an oxidation inhabitation gas such as nitrogen in the FOUP.
However, in a case where the substrate is kept in a long period, or in a case where some time elapses after the first substrate 10 and the second substrate are brought out of the FOUP, as illustrated in
As a method of removing the oxide film 16, for example, a wet etching method is generally performed to remove the oxide film 16 using hydrogen fluoride or hydrochloric acid. However, in a case where the wet etching method using hydrogen fluoride is performed, the surface of the insulating layer 11 is roughened, so that a bonding strength between the first substrate 10 and the second substrate may be lowered.
Therefore, in this embodiment, the oxide film 16 is removed from the surface of the electrode 15, while suppressing the surface of the insulating layer 11 from being roughened, by cleaning the surface of the electrode 15 using the carbonated water. In addition, similarly, the oxide film 16 is removed from the surface of the electrode of the second substrate. A cleaning procedure will be described below in detail with reference to
Next, a process of activating the surface of the insulating layer 11 formed with the electrode 15 will be described with reference to
The process of activating the surface of the insulating layer 11 is performed by an activation apparatus 21 illustrated in
Further, while not illustrated herein, the activation apparatus 21 includes a gas supplying unit which supplies reaction gas into the chamber 22, and a discharge unit which discharges the ambient air in the chamber 22 to the outside of the chamber 22.
The chamber 22 is a treatment chamber where an activation treatment is performed on the surface of the insulating layer 11. The chamber 22 is connected to the ground and provided with the stage 23 therein. The stage 23 is a table on which a target substrate to be placed (herein, the first substrate 10) is adsorbed and attached.
The stage 23 is connected to the ground through the blocking capacitor 25 and the radio frequency power source 26. The antenna coil 24 is a coil which is provided on the tabletop of the chamber 22 and has a spiral shape in plan view. The antenna coil 24 is connected to the ground through the radio frequency power source 27.
In a case where the insulating layer 11 is activated, as illustrated in
Thereafter, the activation apparatus 21 applies a radio frequency voltage from the radio frequency power source 27 to the antenna coil 24, and applies a radio frequency voltage from the radio frequency power source 26 to the stage 23 in a state where the inside of the chamber 22 is substantially made vacuous.
Therefore, in the activation apparatus 21, as illustrated in
Herein, since the chamber 22 is connected to the ground, the electrons attracted to the ceiling of the chamber 22 flow to the ground. Therefore, the potential of the ceiling of the chamber 22 becomes constant. On the other hand, since the blocking capacitor 25 blocks the DC current, the attracted electrons are accumulated to make the upper electrode charged negatively.
Therefore, the positive ions in the plasma state are attracted toward the blocking capacitor 25 charged negatively, and as illustrated with the arrow in
In this way, by activating both of the surface of the insulating layer 11 of the first substrate 10 and the surface of the insulating layer of the second substrate, the surface of the insulating layer 11 of the first substrate 10 and the insulating layer of the second substrate can be directly bonded in a firm manner without using an adhesive. The details of the direct bonding will be described below with reference to
Next, the cleaning process performed after the activation of the surface of the insulating layer 11 will be described with reference to
Herein, the cleaning procedure of the first substrate 10 is the same as the cleaning procedure of the second substrate. Therefore, the description herein will be made about the cleaning procedure of the first substrate 10, and the cleaning procedure of the second substrate will not be given.
As illustrated in
Since the carbonated water is used as the cleaning solution, the cleaning apparatus 31 can remove the oxide film 16 from the surface of the electrode 15 without causing the surface of the insulating layer 11 to be roughened. Specifically, as illustrated in
Therefore, when the copper oxide film 16 formed in the surface of the electrode 15 is cleaned by the acid cleaning solution, a reductive reaction of the following formula (1) occurs.
Cu2O+2H++2e−→2Cu++H2O+2e− (1)
In this way, the copper oxide film 16 becomes copper ions through the reductive reaction, and the copper ions are bonded again with the electrons to be copper and then removed by the cleaning. However, in a case where the cleaning solution has 2 to 3 pH (strong acid), the surface of the insulating layer 11 is roughened by the cleaning solution, and the bonding strength between the first substrate 10 and the second substrate may be lowered as described above.
Therefore, in this embodiment, the copper oxide film 16 formed in the surface of the electrode 15 is cleaned using the carbonated water which is adjusted to have 3.8 to 6 pH and preferably 4.5 pH. Specifically, as illustrated in
The carbonated water 37 supplied to the insulating layer 11 is widened by a centrifugal force of the first substrate 10 from the center of the surface of the insulating layer 11 toward the peripheral edge portion so as to be supplied to the entire surface of the insulating layer 11. Therefore, as illustrated in
Further, since the oxide film 16 is removed, the surface of the electrode 15 is slightly retracted from the surface of the insulating layer 11, but will be thermally expanded by thermal treatment (described below) performed after the first substrate 10 and the second substrate are bonded. Therefore, the electrode 15 is connected to the electrode of the second substrate.
In addition, since the carbonated water 37 is used as the cleaning solution, the cleaning apparatus 31 can suppress particles from being attached to the surface of the insulating layer 11 compared to, for example, a typical cleaning apparatus which uses ultrapure water as the cleaning solution.
Specifically, in a case where the cleaning solution is supplied to the insulating layer 11 on the rotating first substrate 10, the surface of the insulating layer 11 is rubbed with the cleaning solution so as to cause static electricity and thus charged. Herein, the ultrapure water has a significantly high specific resistance of 18 MΩ·cm. Therefore, in a case where the cleaning is performed using the ultrapure water, the charged insulating layer 11 is not discharged, so that the particles may be attached to the insulating layer 11 by the static electricity.
On the contrary, for example, the carbonated water 37 having 3.8 to 6 pH has a specific resistance of 0.02 to 1.9 MΩ·cm which is significantly smaller than that of the ultrapure water. Therefore, in the cleaning apparatus 31, the carbonated water 37 having 3.8 to 6 pH, preferably 4.5 pH, and having a specific resistance of 0.02 to 1.9 MΩ·cm, preferably 0.1 MΩ·cm is used as the cleaning solution.
Therefore, in the cleaning apparatus 31, even when the static electricity is generated in the surface of the insulating layer 11 during the cleaning, the static electricity can be discharged through the carbonated water 37 having a significantly low specific resistance, so that it is possible to suppress the particles from being attached to the surface of the insulating layer 11.
In addition, in a case where a cleaning time is less than 1 second, the cleaning apparatus 31 is not able to control a discharge amount of the cleaning solution. In addition, when the cleaning time exceeds 120 seconds, the cleaning apparatus 31 may cause a reduction in throughput of the process. Therefore, the cleaning apparatus 31 continuously performs the cleaning with the carbonated water 37 on one substrate during 1 to 120 seconds, preferably 60 seconds.
Therefore, the cleaning apparatus 31 can sufficiently remove the oxide film 16 while keeping the throughput constant. Further, the cleaning apparatus 31 performs the cleaning process on the second substrate similarly to the first substrate 10.
Next, a bonding procedure of the substrate will be described with reference to
The bonding procedure of the substrates is performed by the bonding apparatus 41 illustrated in
In a case where the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 50 are bonded by the bonding apparatus 41, first, the first substrate 10 is placed on the stage 42 while keeping the insulating layer 11 to face upward, and held by the stage 42 as illustrated in
Subsequently, the second substrate 50 already provided with the image sensor is placed while keeping an insulating layer 51 to face downward, and the peripheral edge portion of the surface (herein, the lower surface) of the insulating layer 51 is supported by the support body 43. At this time, for example, the vertical positions of the electrode 15 of the first substrate 10 and the electrode of the second substrate 50 are matched by matching the positions of an orientation flat and a notch of the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 50.
In addition, the vertical positions of the electrode 15 of the first substrate 10 and the electrode of the second substrate 50 may be matched by matching the pattern positions between the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 50. In this case, the support body 43 of the bonding apparatus 41 is desirably formed in the stage shape to adsorb and hold the second substrate 50 in order to correct the bending of the second substrate 50.
Thereafter, as illustrated in
Subsequently, as illustrated in
Thereafter, finally, as illustrated in
Next, the description will be made about the configuration for increasing the bonding strength between the insulating layers 11 and 51 through the thermal treatment performed on the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 50 which are bonded to each other with reference to
As described above, when the surfaces of the insulating layers 11 and 51 are activated by the activation apparatus 21 illustrated in
Then, when the surfaces of the insulating layers 11 and 51 attached with the OH group are bonded, the OH group of the insulating layer 11 and the OH group of the insulating layer 51 are bonded by hydrogen as illustrated in
Thus, the thermal treatment is performed on the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 50 which are bonded through the hydrogen bonding. Therefore, as illustrated in
Thereafter, the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 50 bonded to each other are diced in a unit of chip, thereby manufacturing the semiconductor device having a two-stage chip. In the cleaning procedure during the manufacturing, the manufactured semiconductor device thus manufactured can suppress a connection failure and an increase of connection resistance between the electrodes since the oxide films 16 formed in the surface of the electrode 15 of the insulating layer 11 and the surface of the electrode of the insulating layer 51 are removed. Furthermore, in the cleaning procedure, a defect such as a bonding failure or a peeling between the insulating layers 11 and 51 can be suppressed since the surfaces of the insulating layers 11 and 51 are not roughened.
As described above, in the method of manufacturing the semiconductor device according to the embodiment, the electrodes are formed by a damascene method in the insulating layers provided in the surface of the first substrate and the surface of the second substrate, and then the surfaces of the insulating layers are activated by a plasma process.
Thereafter, the electrode and the surface of the insulating layer are cleaned using the carbonated water, and the insulating layer of the first substrate and the insulating layer of the second substrate are bonded to connect the electrode of the first substrate and the electrode of the second substrate.
According to the method of manufacturing the semiconductor device according to the embodiment, the metal oxide film can be removed from the surface of the electrode before the first substrate and the second substrate are bonded without causing the surface of the insulating layer to be roughened. Therefore, according to the method of manufacturing the semiconductor device according to the embodiment, it is possible to suppress the connection failure in the bonding portion of the electrodes connected by bonding the substrates.
Further, the above embodiment has been described about an example in a case where both of the first substrate and the second substrate are cleaned using the carbonated water. However, any one of the substrates may be cleaned using the carbonated water. The semiconductor device manufactured by bonding a pair of substrates of which any one is cleaned using the carbonated water can reduce the connection resistance of the electrode compared to the semiconductor device manufactured by bonding a pair of substrates which are not cleaned using the carbonated water.
In addition, the above embodiment has been described about a case where the substrate is cleaned using a single wafer cleaning apparatus. There may be used a cleaning apparatus in which a plurality of substrates are dipped into the carbonated water at a time and cleaned. Therefore, it is possible to increase the number of substrates to be cleaned in a unit time.
In addition, the above embodiment has been described in a case where the surface of the insulating layer and the surface of the electrode are cleaned using the carbonated water. However, at least the surface of the electrode is cleaned using the carbonated water, and a portion having no electrode may be cleaned using the pure water. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the using amount of the carbonated water.
In addition, this embodiment has been described about a case where two substrates are bonded, but this embodiment may be applied to a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device in which three or more substrates are bonded. In a case where three or more substrates are bonded, the electrode is formed in the insulating layer provided in the front and rear surfaces of each substrate, the surface of each insulating layer is activated, the insulating layers of the front and rear surfaces are cleaned using the carbonated water, and then the substrates are bonded to each other. Therefore, even in a case where three or more substrates are bonded, it is possible to suppress the connection failure between the electrodes to be connected by bonding.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2014-224491 | Nov 2014 | JP | national |