Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Chien-Ping Lee

Hui-Chi Huang

I-Shuo Liu

Jung-Tsan Tsai

Methods for cleaning integrated circuit (IC) wafers after undergoing planarization processes (for example, chemical mechanical polishing processes) and associated cleaning units and/or planarization units are disclosed herein. An exemplary method includes configuring outlet areas of spray nozzles to deliver a cleaning solution to optimal locations of the IC wafer and delivering the cleaning solution via the spray nozzles having the configured outlet areas to the IC wafer. Each of the outlet areas is configured to achieve a particular velocity of the cleaning solution exiting the outlet area, such that the cleaning solution reaches a particular location of the IC wafer depending on the particular velocity. In some implementations, the cleaning solution enters inlet areas of the spray nozzles at the same flow rate and the cleaning solution exits the outlet areas of the spray nozzles at different velocities.

Methods and systems for chemical mechanical polish cleaning

The present disclosure provides a cleaning unit for a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. The cleaning unit comprises a cleaning solution; a brush configured to scrub a wafer during the CMP process; and a spray nozzle configured to apply the cleaning solution to the wafer when the brush scrubs the wafer during the CMP process. In some embodiments, the spray nozzle includes an inlet where the cleaning solution enters the spray nozzle and an outlet where the cleaning solution exits the spray nozzle. In some embodiments, an inlet area (A) is different from an outlet area (A).

Systems and methods are provided for performing chemical-mechanical planarization on an article. An example system for performing chemical-mechanical planarization on an article includes a polishing head configured to perform a chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) on an article, a polishing pad configured to support the article, a light source configured to emit an incident light, a polishing fluid including a plurality of emitter particles capable of emitting a fluorescent light in response to the incident light, a fluorescence light detector configured to detect the fluorescent light, and at least one processor configured to control the polishing head based on the detected fluorescent light.

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Taipei, Taiwan

Chien-Ping Lee