Applied Materials, Inc.

Garlen C Leung

Gregory E Menk

Gopalakrishna B Prabhu

Erik S Rondum

Peter McReynolds

Anand N Iyer

Jeffrey Drue David

Jun Qian

Tomohiko Kitajima

Sidney P Huey

Benjamin A Bonner

Christopher Heung-Gyun Lee

Taketo Sekine

Robert L Jackson

Jie Diao

Steven M Zuniga

Thomas H Osterheld

Lakshmanan Karuppiah

Adam Zhong

Vasanth N Mohan

Henry H Au

Robert A Marks

Yi-Yung Tao

A method of controlling polishing includes storing a base measurement, the base measurement being a measurement of a substrate after deposition of at least one layer overlying a semiconductor wafer and before deposition of an outer layer over the at least one layer, after deposition of the outer layer over the at least one layer and during polishing of the outer layer on substrate, receiving a sequence of raw measurements of the substrate from an in-situ monitoring system, normalizing each raw measurement in the sequence of raw measurement to generate a sequence of normalized measurements using the raw measurement and the base measurement, and determining at least one of a polishing endpoint or an adjustment for a polishing rate based on at least the sequence of normalized measurements.

Polishing with measurement prior to deposition of outer layer

A method of controlling polishing includes storing a base spectrum, the base spectrum being a spectrum of light reflected from a substrate after deposition of a deposited dielectric layers overlying a metallic layer or semiconductor wafer and before deposition of a non-metallic layer over the plurality of deposited dielectric layer. After deposition of the non-metallic layer and during polishing of the non-metallic layer on the substrate, measurements of a sequence of raw spectra of light reflected the substrate during polishing are received from an in-situ optical monitoring system. Each raw spectrum is normalized to generate a sequence of normalized spectra using the raw spectrum and the base spectrum. At least one of a polishing endpoint or an adjustment for a polishing rate is determined based on at least one normalized predetermined spectrum from the sequence of normalized spectra.

Polishing with pre deposition spectrum

A method of controlling polishing includes storing a base measurement, the base measurement being an eddy current measurement of a substrate after deposition of at least one layer overlying a semiconductor wafer and before deposition of a conductive layer over the at least one layer, after deposition of the conductive layer over the at least one layer and during polishing of the conductive layer on substrate, receiving a sequence of raw measurements of the substrate from an in-situ eddy current monitoring system, normalizing each raw measurement in the sequence of raw measurement to generate a sequence of normalized measurements using the raw measurement and the base measurement, and determining at least one of a polishing endpoint or an adjustment for a polishing rate based on at least the sequence of normalized measurements.

Polishing with eddy current feed meaurement prior to deposition of conductive layer

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 polishing article includes a polishing layer having a polishing surface and a solid light-transmissive window in the polishing layer, the window having a first non-linear edge that extends along a first axis parallel to the polishing surface, the first non-linear edge including a plurality of projections and a plurality of recesses extending parallel to the polishing surface and disposed in an alternating pattern along the first axis.

Polishing article with integrated window stripe

A polishing apparatus is described. The polishing apparatus includes a rotatable platen, a drive mechanism to incrementally advance a polishing sheet having a polishing surface in a linear direction across the platen, a subpad on the platen to support the polishing sheet, the subpad having a groove formed therein, and a vacuum source connected to the groove of the subpad and configured to apply a vacuum sufficient to pull portions of the polishing sheet into the groove of the subpad to induce a groove in the polishing surface.

Polishing apparatus with grooved subpad

A method is described. The method includes contacting a non-solid material to a non-linear edge of a sheet of polishing material, and causing the non-solid material to solidify to form a window that contacts the non-linear edge of the polishing material.

A polishing article and method for manufacturing a polishing article for use in a chemical mechanical polishing process is disclosed. The polishing article has a plurality of polishing material tiles separated by grooves formed in or through a polishing material and may be adhesively bound to a base film. The polishing article may include various polygonal tiles and oval shapes formed in the polishing material which allow enhanced slurry retention and ease in rolling from a polishing material supply roll and onto a take-up roll in a web type platen assembly. The polishing article may also include an upper carrier film adapted to minimize delaminating stress placed in an area of the polishing article that is not adapted for polishing. A method and apparatus for manufacturing the various embodiments of the polishing article and a replacement supply roll are also disclosed.

Materials for chemical mechanical polishing

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.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Garlen C Leung