Applied Materials, Inc.

David Maxwell Gage

Kun Xu

Harry Q Lee

Benjamin Cherian

Doyle E Bennett

Kiran Lall Shrestha

Jianshe Tang

Jun Qian

Feng Quan Liu

Seshadri Ganguli

Roey Shaviv

Suketu Arun Parikh

Joung Joo Lee

Jimin Zhang

Rong Tao

Shirish A Pethe

Michael Anthony Stolfi

Boguslaw A Swedek

Dominic J Benvegnu

Lakshmanan Karuppiah

Wen-Chiang Tu

Yuchun Wang

Wei Guang Lu

Ingemar Carlsson

You Wang

Shih-Haur Shen

Hassan G Iravani

Stephen Jew

Pierre Fontarensky

Xingfeng Wang

A method of compensating for a contribution of conductivity of the semiconductor wafer to a measured trace by an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system includes storing or generating a modified reference trace. The modified reference trace represents measurements of a bare doped reference semiconductor wafer by an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system as modified by a neutral network. The substrate is monitored with an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system to generate a measured trace that depends on a thickness of the conductive layer, and at least a portion of the measured trace is applied to a neural network to generate a modified measured trace. An adjusted trace is generated, including subtracting the modified reference trace from the modified measured trace.

Compensation for substrate doping in edge reconstruction for in-situ electromagnetic inductive monitoring

A method of polishing a substrate includes polishing a conductive layer on the substrate at a polishing station, monitoring the layer with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals values for a plurality of different locations on the layer, generating thickness measurements the locations, and detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on the thickness measurements. The conductive layer is formed of a first material having a first conductivity. Generating includes calculating initial thickness values based on the plurality of measured signals values and processing the initial thickness values through a neural network that was trained using training data acquired by measuring calibration substrates having a conductive layer formed of a second material having a second conductivity that is lower than the first conductivity to generated adjusted thickness values.

Technique for training neural network for use in in-situ monitoring during polishing and polishing system

Trained neural network in in-situ monitoring during polishing and polishing system

Methods and apparatus for creating a dual metal interconnect on a substrate. In some embodiments, a first liner of a first nitride material is deposited into at least one 1X feature and at least one wider than 1X feature, the first liner has a thickness of less than or equal to approximately 12 angstroms; a second liner of a first metal material is deposited into the at least one 1X feature and at least one wider than 1X feature; the first metal material is reflowed such that the at least one 1X feature is filled with the first metal material and the at least one wider than 1X feature remains unfilled with the first metal material; a second metal material is deposited on the first metal material, and the second metal material is reflowed such that the at least one wider than 1X feature is filled with the second metal material.

Methods and apparatus for forming dual metal interconnects

During polishing of a stack of adjacent layers, a plurality of instances of a profile control algorithm are executed on a controller with different instances having different values for a control parameter. A first instance receives a sequence of characterizing values from an in-situ monitoring system during an initial time period to control a polishing parameter, and a second instance receives the sequence of characterizing values during the initial time period and a subsequent time period to control the polishing parameter. Exposure of the underlying layer is detected based on the sequence of characterizing values from the in-situ monitoring system.

Profile control with multiple instances of contol algorithm during polishing

A method of controlling polishing includes polishing a stack of adjacent conductive layers on a substrate, measuring with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system a sequence of characterizing values for the substrate during polishing, calculating a polishing rate from the sequence of characterizing values repeatedly during polishing, calculating one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters based on a current polishing rate using a first control algorithm for an initial time period, detecting a change in the polishing rate that indicates exposure of the underlying conductive layer, and calculating one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters based on the polishing rate using a different second control algorithm for a subsequent time period after detecting the change in the polishing rate.

Switching control algorithms on detection of exposure of underlying layer during polishing

A polishing station for polishing a substrate using a polishing slurry is disclosed. The polishing station includes a substrate carrier having a substrate-receiving surface and a rotatable platen having a polishing pad disposed on a platen surface, where the polishing pad has a polishing surface facing the substrate-receiving surface. The polishing station includes an electromagnetic assembly disposed over the platen surface. The electromagnetic assembly includes an array of electromagnetic devices that are each operable to generate a magnetic field that is configured to pass through the polishing surface. The magnetic fields generated by the array of electromagnetic devices are oriented and configured to induce an electromagnetic force on a plurality of charged particles disposed in a polishing slurry disposed on the polishing surface. The applied magnetic field is configured to induce movement of the plurality of charged particles in a direction parallel or orthogonal to the polishing surface.

Chemical mechanical polishing with applied magnetic field

A method of chemical mechanical polishing includes bringing a substrate having a conductive layer disposed over a semiconductor wafer into contact with a polishing pad, generating relative motion between the substrate and the polishing pad, monitoring the substrate with an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system as the conductive layer is polished to generate a sequence of signal values that depend on a thickness of the conductive layer, determining a sequence of thickness values for the conductive layer based on the sequence of signal values, and at least partially compensating for a contribution of conductivity of the semiconductor wafer to the signal values.

Compensation for substrate doping for in-situ electromagnetic inductive monitoring

Using a trained neural network for use in in-situ monitoring during polishing and polishing system

Methods and apparatus for creating a dual metal interconnect on a substrate. In some embodiments, a first liner of a first nitride material is deposited into at least one 1&#xd7; feature and at least one wider than 1&#xd7; feature, the first liner has a thickness of less than or equal to approximately 12 angstroms; a second liner of a first metal material is deposited into the at least one 1&#xd7; feature and at least one wider than 1&#xd7; feature; the first metal material is reflowed such that the at least one 1&#xd7; feature is filled with the first metal material and the at least one wider than 1&#xd7; feature remains unfilled with the first metal material; a second metal material is deposited on the first metal material, and the second metal material is reflowed such that the at least one wider than 1&#xd7; feature is filled with the second metal material.

During polishing of a substrate a first signal is received from a first in-situ monitoring system and a second signal is received from a second in-situ monitoring system. A clearance time at which a conductive layer is cleared and a top surface of an underlying dielectric layer of the substrate exposed and determine based on the first signal. An initial value of the second signal at the determined clearance time is determined. An offset is added to the initial value to generate a threshold value, and a polishing endpoint is triggered when the second signal crosses the threshold value.

Overpolishing based on electromagnetic inductive monitoring of trench depth

A method of controlling polishing includes polishing a first substrate having an overlying layer on an underlying layer or layer structure. During polishing, the substrate is monitored with an in-situ monitoring system to generate a sequence of measurements. The measurements are sorted into groups, each group associated with a different zone of a plurality of zones on the substrate. For each zone, a time at which the overlying layer is cleared is determined based on the measurements from the associated group. At least one second adjusted polishing pressure for at least zone is calculated based on a pressure applied in the at least one zone during polishing the substrate, the time for the at least one zone, and the time for another zone. A second substrate is polished using the at least one adjusted polishing pressure.

Feedback control of polishing using optical detection of clearance

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

David Maxwell Gage