A graph-theoretic approach for quantification of surface morphology variation and its application to chemical mechanical planarization process Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Copyright "IIE" 2015. We present an algebraic graph-theoretic approach for quantification of surface morphology. Using this approach, heterogeneous, multi-scaled aspects of surfaces; e.g., semiconductor wafers, are tracked from optical micrographs as opposed to reticent profile mapping techniques. Therefore, this approach can facilitate in situ real-time assessment of surface quality. We report two complementary methods for realizing graph-theoretic representation and subsequent quantification of surface morphology variations from optical micrograph images. Experimental investigations with specular finished copper wafers (surface roughness (Sa) 6 nm) obtained using a semiconductor chemical mechanical planarization process suggest that the graph-based topological invariant Fiedler number (2) was able to quantify and track variations in surface morphology more effectively compared to other quantifiers reported in literature.

published proceedings

  • IIE TRANSACTIONS

author list (cited authors)

  • Rao, P. K., Beyca, O. F., Kong, Z. J., Bukkapatnam, S., Case, K. E., & Komanduri, R.

citation count

  • 35

complete list of authors

  • Rao, Prahalad K||Beyca, Omer F||Kong, Zhenyu James||Bukkapatnam, Satish TS||Case, Kenneth E||Komanduri, Ranga

publication date

  • October 2015