Micron Technology Incorporated

Motorola Corporation

Adam Manzonie

Salman Akram

Rajeev Bajaj

Sung C Kim

Lei Ping Lai

The present invention is a polishing pad that planarizes and cleans a semiconductor wafer in chemical-mechanical planarization processes. The polishing pad has a polishing body and a cleaning element positioned in the polishing body. The polishing body includes a planarizing surface, a basin formed in the body, and an opening at the planarizing surface defined by the basin. The cleaning element is positioned in the basin so that a cleaning surface of the cleaning element is positioned in the opening proximate to a plane defined by the planarizing surface. In operation, the cleaning surface periodically engages the wafer when the wafer is engaged with the pad to remove residual materials from the surface of the wafer.

Polishing pad for chemical-mechanical planarization of a semiconductor

A chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) method utilizes a polishing pad (21) and an under pad (20). The under pad (20) has an edge portion (24) and a central portion (22). The central portion (22) has either a shore D hardness less than a shore D hardness of the portion (24), greater slurry absorption than the edge portion (24), or more compressibility than the edge portion (24). This composite material under pad (20) will improve polishing uniformity of a semiconductor wafer (39). In addition, the use of the polishing pads (20 and 21) allows for greater final wafer profile control than was previously available in the art (FIGS. 4-6).

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Adam Manzonie