Study on Measurement Method of Microscopic ζ Potential

We developed a method of measuring microscopic ζ potential (ZP) from force vs distance (FD) curves observed by atomic force microscope (AFM). ZP in microscopic regions on wafer surfaces may be one of the most important design guides of chemical mechanical polishing slurries applicable to ultrafine patterned wafers, while ZP is generally observed as an average information for a wide area. Our method is based on the linear correlation between jump-in loads in FD curves observed by the AFM for the blanket wafers (SiO
₂
, SiN and poly-Si) in water systems and ZP of each wafer surface measured by the flow potential method. In the applications of our AFM-based measurement method, material-dependency of ZP on the SiO
₂
/SiN patterned wafer surface and an additive material in a slurry (anionic polymer) adsorbing selectively on the SiN surface of the SiO
₂
/SiN patterned wafer were observed.