A polishing agent for a synthetic quartz glass substrate, containing polishing particles and water includes ceria particles as base particles, and composite oxide particles of cerium and at least one rare earth element selected from trivalent rare earth elements other than cerium are supported on surfaces of the base particles. This provides a polishing agent for a synthetic quartz glass substrate, the polishing agent having high polishing rate and being capable of sufficiently reducing generation of defects due to polishing.

Present invention provides Chemical Mechanical Planarization Polishing (CMP) compositions for Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) applications. The CMP compositions contain ceria coated inorganic oxide particles as abrasives, such as ceria-coated silica particles; chemical additive selected from the group consisting of an organic acetylene molecule containing an acetylene bond and at least two or multi ethoxylate functional groups with terminal hydroxyl groups, an organic molecule with at least two or multi hydroxyl functional groups in the same molecule, and combinations thereof; water soluble solvent; and optionally biocide and pH adjuster; wherein the composition has a pH of 2 to 12, preferably 3 to 10, and more preferably 4 to 9.

A composition is provided that comprises a calcium carbonate slurry. The calcium carbonate slurry comprises a plurality of calcium carbonate particles suspended in a solution, where the solution comprises a dispersant and an anionic surfactant. The concentration of the calcium carbonate particles in the calcium carbonate slurry is equal to or less than about 2.0 wt. %.

A method of processing chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) pad conditioners includes providing the CMP pad conditioner including conditioner substrate that is a metal, ceramic or a metal-ceramic material with a plurality of hard conditioner particles with a Vickers hardness greater than 3,000 Kg/mm.sup.2 bonded to a top surface of the conditioner substrate, and a slurry including an aqueous medium and a plurality of hard slurry particles having a hardness greater than 3,000 Kg/mm.sup.2. The surface of the pad conditioner is polished in a CMP apparatus using a polishing pad. After the polishing each conditioner particle has at least one exposed facet, and the plurality of hard conditioner particles have a maximum average protrusion-to-protrusion flatness (PPF) difference of 20 microns, and a sharpest edge measured by a value of a cutting edge radius (CER) that lies at an edge of the facet for at least 80% of the facets.

Solutions are disclosed for preventing the settling of an abrasive, while maintaining the polishing performance of a polishing composition. Solutions are disclosed for improving the redispersibility of an abrasive while maintaining the polishing performance. Polishing compositions for use in polishing a semiconductor substrate according to the present disclosure include an abrasive, a layered compound, and a dispersion medium.

A chemical mechanical polishing composition comprises, consists of, or consists essentially of a liquid carrier, abrasive particles in the liquid carrier, a pyrophosphate compound, and a sulfonate compound or a compound including a quaternary ammonium group.

A chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) system including a capacitive deionization module (CDM) for removing ions from a solution and a method for using the same are disclosed. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a planarization unit for planarizing a wafer; a cleaning unit for cleaning the wafer; a wafer transportation unit for transporting the wafer between the planarization unit and the cleaning unit; and a capacitive deionization module for removing ions from a solution used in at least one of the planarization unit or the cleaning unit.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor process polishing composition and a semiconductor device manufacturing method in which the polishing composition is applied, and can provide a preparation method applied to a CMP process for an amorphous carbon layer, and thus exhibits a high polishing rate, prevents, during a CMP process, the re-adsorption of carbon residue on a semiconductor substrate and the contamination of a polishing pad, and stabilizes an accelerator in the polishing composition so that the storage stability thereof is excellent. In addition, provided is a semiconductor device manufacturing method in which the semiconductor process polishing composition is applied.

The present invention provides a method for producing an inorganic particle-containing slurry, by which the number of coarse particles can be sufficiently reduced. The present invention is a method for producing an inorganic particle-containing slurry, which comprises: a step of preparing an inorganic particle dispersion containing inorganic particles and a dispersing medium, and having a pH less than the isoelectric point of the inorganic particles; and a step of adding an alkaline compound to the inorganic particle dispersion in such a manner that the pH does not reach the isoelectric point of the inorganic particles.

To provide means for improving a ratio of a polishing speed of SiOC to a polishing speed of SiN. There is provided a polishing composition containing: abrasive grains containing at least one kind of zirconia particles; a selection ratio improver containing at least one kind of a salt composed of a monovalent anion and a monovalent or higher valent cation and improving a ratio of a polishing speed of SiOC to a polishing speed of SiN; and a pH adjusting agent containing at least one kind of an acid, in which a pH is more than 3.0 and less than 7.0, and a zeta potential of the abrasive grain is a positive value.