Applied Materials, Inc.

Christopher Heung-Gyun Lee

Erik S Rondum

Jie Diao

Anand N Iyer

Garlen C Leung

Jeonghoon Oh

Andrew J Nagengast

Gregory E Menk

Huanbo Zhang

Thomas Li

Thomas Ho Fai Li

Wei-Cheng Lee

Thomas H Osterheld

Shou-Sung Chang

Lakshmanan Karuppiah

Gopalakrishna B Prabhu

Chih Chung Chou

Ekaterina A Mikhaylichenko

Adam Zhong

John S Hearne

Bum Jick Kim

Peter McReynolds

Vasanth N Mohan

Kenneth Reese Reynolds

Terry Kin-Ting Ko

Hyuen Karen Tran

Ghunbong Cheung

Tiffany Yu-Nung Cheung

Robert A Marks

Lidia Vereen

Peter N Skarpelos

Brian J Downum

Patrick Williams

Daniel Hachnochi

Yi-Yung Tao

Tianyu Yang

Methods and apparatuses for dispensing polishing fluids onto a polishing pad within a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) system are disclosed herein. In particular, embodiments herein relate to a CMP polishing method including urging a substrate against a surface of a pad of a polishing system using a carrier assembly. A fluid is dispensed onto the pad from a fluid delivery assembly at a variable flow rate and a first flow rate of the variable flow rate is pulsed at a frequency and a duty cycle. The frequency refers to a number of pulses of the fluid at the first flow rate per rotation of the pad. The term duty cycle refers to a percentage of the pad exposed to fluid per rotation of the pad. The carrier assembly is translated across a surface of the pad while rotating the carrier assembly about a rotational axis.

Spray system for slurry reduction during chemical mechanical polishing (cmp)

Embodiments herein generally relate to chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) systems and methods for reducing non-uniform material removal rate at or near the peripheral edge of a substrate when compared to radially inward regions therefrom. In one embodiment, a polishing system includes a substrate carrier comprising an annular retaining ring which is used to surround a to-be-processed substrate during a polishing process and a polishing platen. The polishing platen includes cylindrical metal body having a pad-mounting surface. The pad-mounting surface comprises a plurality of polishing zones which include a first zone having a circular or annular shape, a second zone circumscribing the first zone, and a third zone circumscribing the second zone. A surface of the second zone is recessed from surfaces of the first and third zones adjacent thereto, and a width of the second zone is less than an outer diameter of the annular retaining ring.

Platen surface modification and high-performance pad conditioning to improve CMP performance

A retaining ring includes a generally annular body having an inner surface to constrain a substrate, an outer surface, and a bottom surface. The bottom surface has a plurality of channels extending from the outer surface to the inner surface and a plurality of islands separated by the channels and providing a contact area to contact a polishing pad. Each channel includes a recessed region adjacent the outer surface such that the channel is deeper in the recessed region than in a remainder of the channel. The recessed region and the remainder of the channel each have substantially uniform depth.

Retaining ring for CMP

Polishing pad cleaning systems and related methods are disclosed. A rotatable platen comprising a polishing pad in combination with a fluid, such as a polishing fluid, contacts a substrate to planarize material at the surface thereof and resultantly creates debris. A cleaning system introduces a spray system to remove debris from the polishing pad to prevent substrate damage and improve efficiency, a waste removal system for removing used spray, used polishing fluid, and debris from the polishing pad, and a polishing fluid delivery system for providing fresh polishing fluid to the polishing pad, such that the substrate only receives fresh polishing fluid upon each complete rotation of the platen. In this manner, within die performance is enhanced, the range of certain CMP processes is improved, scratches and contamination are avoided for each polished substrate and for later-polished substrates, and platen temperatures are reduced.

System and process for in situ byproduct removal and platen cooling during CMP

A retaining ring includes a generally annular body having an inner surface to constrain a substrate and a bottom surface, the bottom surface having a plurality of channels extending from an outer surface to the inner surface, and a plurality of islands separated by the channels and providing a contact area to contact a polishing pad, wherein the contact area is about 15-40% of a plan area of the bottom surface.

In one embodiment, a method for cleaning a surface of a polishing pad includes conditioning the polishing pad surface and rotating the conditioned polishing pad surface. The method also includes spraying the polishing pad surface to lift debris from the conditioned polishing pad surface. The method further includes vacuuming the debris from the polishing pad surface downstream from where the condition occurs, wherein downstream is defined by a rotational direction of the polishing pad. In another embodiment, a processing station including a rotatable platen, a substrate carrier head, a polishing fluid delivery system, a conditioner, a spray nozzle, and a vacuum system is provided. The conditioner is disposed between the substrate carrier head and the spray nozzle. The vacuum system is configured to vacuum the polishing pad surface. The vacuum system is downstream from the conditioner, defined by a rotation of the platen.

Polishing pad cleaning with vacuum apparatus

A chemical mechanical apparatus comprises a polishing platen, a roller pad assembly capable of advancing a polishing pad across the platen, a substrate carrier to press a substrate against the polishing pad, and a heater to heat the substrate to a temperature sufficiently high to provide a rate of removal of material from the substrate that compensates for the wear of the polishing pad.

Chemical mechanical polisher with heater and method

A method and apparatus for polishing or planarizing a pre-metal dielectric layer by a chemical mechanical polishing process are provided. The method comprises providing a semiconductor substrate having feature definitions formed thereon, forming a pre-metal dielectric layer over the substrate, wherein the as-deposited pre-metal dielectric layer has an uneven surface topography, and planarizing the uneven surface topography of the pre-metal dielectric layer using chemical mechanical polishing techniques, wherein planarizing the uneven surface topography comprises polishing the pre-metal dielectric layer with a fixed abrasive polishing pad and a first polishing composition to remove a bulk portion of the pre-metal dielectric layer and achieve a first predetermined planarity, and polishing the pre-metal dielectric layer with a non-abrasive polishing pad and high selectivity slurry to remove a residual portion of the pre-metal dielectric and achieve a second predetermined planarity.

Process sequence to achieve global planarity using a combination of fixed abrasive and high selectivity slurry for pre-metal dielectric CMP applications

A method and apparatus for delivering a polishing fluid to a chemical mechanical polishing surface is provided. In one embodiment, an apparatus for delivering a polishing fluid to a chemical mechanical polishing surface includes an arm having a plurality of holes formed in the arm for retaining a plurality of polishing fluid delivery tubes. Each of the tubes are disposed through one of the holes and coupled to the arm. The number of holes exceeds the number of tubes, thereby allowing the distribution of polishing fluid to a polishing surface and correspondingly the local polishing rates across a diameter of a substrate being polished to be controlled.

Flexible polishing fluid delivery system

Methods and compositions are provided for planarizing a substrate surface with reduced or minimal topographical defect formation during a polishing process for dielectric materials. In one aspect a method is provided for polishing a substrate containing two or more dielectric layers, such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, with at least one processing step using a fixed-abrasive polishing article as a polishing article. The processing steps may be used to remove all, substantially all, or a portion of the one or more dielectric layers, which may include removal of the topography, the bulk dielectric, or residual dielectric material of a dielectric layer in two or more steps.

Polishing processes for shallow trench isolation substrates

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Christopher Heung-Gyun Lee