Motorola Corporation

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James B Hall

Earl W O'Neal

Cindy Welt

Otto Luedke

James S Parsons

George W Bailey

A method for pre-shaping a major surface (21,22) of a semiconductor wafer (20) in preparation for polishing includes shaping the major surface (21,22) so that it has a concave shape. In a preferred method, an etching process is used to form the concave shape. The concave shape provides a starting wafer that is extremely flat after polishing.

Method for pre-shaping a semiconductor substrate for polishing and

An improved method for polishing a semiconductor substrate includes forming a protective layer (21) on one major surface (24) of a substrate (19) to form a protected side and polishing an unprotected surface (26) of the substrate (19) with a double sided polisher (11). During the polishing process, material from the unprotected side (26) is removed at a faster rate than material from the protected side. The method provides a single side polished substrate (19) with improved flatness characteristics. In an additional embodiment, polishing pads (13,23) having different surface contact characteristics are used to support process automation.

Method for polishing a semiconductor substrate

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