Shin-etsu Handotai Co., Ltd.

Fujikoshi Machinery Corp.

Shin-etsu Engineering Co., Ltd.

Shin-etsu Handotai, Ltd.

Hiromasa Hashimoto

Fumio Suzuki

Hisashi Masumura

Kazuya Sato

Kohichi Tanaka

Hiromi Kishida

Kouji Morita

Satoru Arakawa

Kouichi Tanaka

Masanao Sasaki

Naoki Kamihama

Yasuharu Ariga

Takahiro Matsuda

Fumihiko Hasegawa

Shigeki Shudo

Noboru Shimamoto

Junichi Ueno

Yasuo Inada

Makoto Nakajima

Akira Matsuda

Yoshihiro Usami

Tsuyoshi Nishizawa

Shigeru Oba

Takuya Sasaki

Kazuaki Aoki

Takashi Aratani

Taichi Ichikawa

Kenji Kasai

Kei Fujiyama

Kouzi Kitagawa

Toshimasa Kubota

Ayumu Sato

Hirotaka Horie

Yuji Kawaura

A method for selecting a template assembly includes: preparing a template assembly in which a template is concentrically attached on a base ring or a base plate having a larger outer diameter than the template, the template having a back pad to hold a workpiece back surface and a retainer ring positioned on the back pad and to hold an edge portion of the workpiece; non-destructively measuring a height position distribution of the retainer ring and the back pad on the template side of the template assembly, where an outer peripheral edge surface of the base ring or the base plate serves as a reference surface; calculating a flatness of the retainer ring and an average amount of step differences between the retainer ring and the back pad from the measured height position distribution; and selecting the template assembly based on the flatness and the average amount of step differences.

Method for selecting template assembly, method for polishing workpiece, and template assembly

The present invention provides a method for polishing a wafer including, after unloading and before loading to hold a next wafer to be polished: measurement to measure a depth PDof a concave portion of a template after taking out a polished wafer; calculation to calculate a difference &#x394;PD between the measured depth PDof the concave portion and a depth PDof the concave portion of the template before being used for polishing; and adjustment to adjust polishing conditions for a next wafer to be polished in accordance with the calculated difference &#x394;PD. Consequently, there are provided the method for polishing a wafer and a polishing apparatus which enable adjusting a fluctuation in flatness of each wafer caused due to a fluctuation in numerical value of a pocket depth of a template.

Method for polishing wafer and polishing apparatus

A method for evaluating surface defects of a substrate to be bonded: preparing a mirror-polished silicon single crystal substrate; inspecting surface defects on the mirror-polished silicon single crystal substrate; depositing a polycrystalline silicon layer on a surface of the silicon single crystal substrate subjected to the defect inspection; performing mirror edge polishing to the silicon single crystal substrate having the polycrystalline silicon layer deposited thereon; polishing a surface of the polycrystalline silicon layer; inspecting surface defects on the polished polycrystalline silicon layer; and comparing coordinates of defects detected at the step of inspecting the surface defects on the silicon single crystal substrate with counterparts detected at the step of inspecting the surface defects on the polycrystalline silicone layer and determining quality of the silicon single crystal substrate having the polycrystalline silicon layer as a substrate to be bonded on the basis of presence/absence of defects present at the same position.

Method for evaluating surface defects of substrate to be bonded

The present invention is method for polishing silicon wafer, the method including recovering used slurry containing polishing abrasive grains that have been supplied to the silicon wafer and used for polishing, and circulating and supplying the recovered used slurry to the silicon wafer to polish the silicon wafer, wherein mixed alkali solution containing chelating agent and either or both of a pH adjuster and a polishing rate accelerator is added to the recovered used slurry without adding unused polishing abrasive grains, and the recovered used slurry is circulated and supplied to the silicon wafer to polish the silicon wafer. As a result, there is provided a method for polishing a silicon wafer that can suppress the occurrence of metal impurity contamination and stabilize the composition (e.g., the concentration of the chelating agent) of the used slurry when the used slurry is circulated and supplied to the silicon wafer for polishing.

Method for polishing silicon wafer

A method of producing a polishing head including: a backing pad, for holding a workpiece back surface, stuck on a lower portion of a rigid body; and a ring template, for holding a workpiece edge, disposed on a lower surface of the backing pad. This polishing head brings a front surface of the workpiece into sliding contact with a polishing pad attached on a turn table while holding the workpiece back surface on the lower surface of the backing pad. The method includes sticking the backing pad on the lower portion of the rigid body with a double-sided tape under a reduced pressure without heating; and sticking the template on the backing pad with a double-sided tape or a liquid or paste reaction curable adhesive containing no solvent under a reduced pressure without heating. This method can polish the workpiece into a very flat workpiece.

Method of producing polishing head and polishing apparatus

A method for producing mirror-polished wafer, the method produces a plurality of mirror-polished wafers by performing, on plurality of silicon wafers obtained by slicing a silicon ingot, slicing strain removing step of removing strain on a surface caused by slicing, etching step of removing strain caused by the slicing strain removing step, and double-side polishing step of performing mirror polishing on both surfaces of the silicon wafers subjected to etching, each step being performed by batch processing, wherein silicon wafers which are processed in double-side polishing step by batch processing are selected from silicon wafers processed in same batch in the slicing strain removing step and the number of silicon wafers to be selected is made to be equal to the number of silicon wafers processed in the slicing strain removing step or submultiple thereof. As a result, a method that can produce mirror-polished wafers having high flatness is provided.

Method for producing mirror-polished wafer

The present invention provides a method for producing a silicon wafer including a step of, after growing the oxide film on one surface of a raw material silicon wafer by chemical-vapor deposition, performing double-side polishing of the raw material silicon wafer in such a manner that a suede polishing pad or a velour polishing pad with an asker-C rubber hardness of 50&#xb0; or more but less than 90&#xb0; is used for the oxide-film surface.

Method for producing silicon wafer

A polishing head including, below a polishing head body, a rubber film held by a disk-shaped mid plate and an annular guide ring disposed around the rubber film holding the back surface of the workpiece on a lower face portion of the rubber film. The polishing head also includes a base member that is coupled to a polishing head body through an elastic film and holds the guide ring and the mid plate such that the lower surface of the guide ring does not contact the polishing pad during polishing. The polishing head and polishing apparatus, are operable in both of the rough polishing process and final polishing process, that can stably achieve predetermined high flatness and high polishing stock removal uniformity in polishing of a workpiece and can obtain a workpiece with fewer fine particles having a diameter of 45 nm or more.

Polishing head and polishing apparatus

A polishing head for holding a workpiece when a surface of the workpiece is polished and a polishing apparatus provided with the polishing head, and more particularly a polishing head for holding the workpiece on a rubber film and a polishing apparatus provided with the polishing head. The polishing head and the polishing apparatus provided with the polishing head that can adjust the polishing profile on the basis of the shape of the workpiece before polishing and can stably obtain good flatness.

The present invention is a polishing head in which a rubber film is formed in a boot shape in such a manner that a position where the rubber film is held by a mid plate is distantly positioned from a work holding portion; an end portion of the boot shaped rubber film is formed in O-ring shape so that the rubber film is held by the mid plate with decreasing an area of contact between the mid plate and the rubber film as much as possible. As a result, there is provided a polishing head with rubber chuck method in which an occurrence of a surface defect, such as a scratch, on a surface of the work is suppressed as much as possible and the work can be uniformly and stably polished to the outer periphery.

Polishing head and polishing apparatus having the same

The present invention provides a polishing headcomprising a carrier, a guide ring, a dress ring, and a head body, wherein the head bodyis rotatable, and holds the carrier, the guide ring, and the dress ring; the head bodyhas a reversed-bowl shape and has a hollow; the dress ring, and at least the guide ring or the carrier are held by being coupled to a lower brim of the head body via a diaphragm; the hollow of the head body is sealed. During polishing, the pressure of the sealed hollow is adjusted with a pressure regulating mechanismcommunicating with the hollow, thereby elastically deforming the diaphragm. As a result, a wafer W can be polished while the wafer and the dress ring are pressed with a given pressing force against a polishing padon a turn tablewith rotating the wafer held by the carrier and the dress ring. Consequently, there is provided a polishing head or the like with which excessive polishing in the outer periphery of a semiconductor wafer can be prevented and generation of impressions or scratches in the edge portion of the wafer can be prevented effectively.

Polishing head, polishing apparatus and polishing method for semiconductor wafer

The present invention provides a process for manufacturing a semiconductor wafer capable of effectively reducing unevenness having a wavelength of 0.5 mm or more which remains on a surface of the semiconductor wafer after a first polishing step and improving flatness thereof; and a semiconductor wafer manufactured by the manufacturing process. The manufacturing process comprises: plural polishing steps including a first polishing step and a final polishing step; and a corrective polishing step performed after the first polishing step using a polishing cloth harder than that used in the first polishing step.

Process for manufacturing semiconductor wafer and semiconductor wafer

A backing pad for supporting semiconductor wafer allowing an advanced flatness of its mirror-polished surface even for large sized wafers. A backing pad 1 is smoothly finished on its wafer holding surface 1a, thereon a number of grooves 2, 2 . . . aligned in a lattice form and elongated toward the outer periphery of the backing pad 1. The backing pad is typically made of polyurethane poromerics internally including a number of isolated pores. All of the grooves 2 are equal in the width and depth, which are kept constant along their lengthy direction. Intergroove pitch is also kept constant over the entire wafer holding surface 1a. The backing pad 1 is enlarged in its diameter to allow simultaneous loading of a plurality of wafers W, W . . . .

Backing pad and method for polishing semiconductor wafer therewith

A polishing machine for polishing a flat workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer has a rotatable reference table supporting an abrasive cloth disposed on a surface thereof, and a rotatable workpiece holder for holding a flat workpiece against the abrasive cloth. While the flat workpiece is being polished by the abrasive cloth, an abrasive compound is supplied between the abrasive cloth and the flat workpiece. The reference table has grooves defined therein for dissipating heat from the reference table and the abrasive cloth while the flat workpiece is being polished by the abrasive cloth. The grooves may be supplied with either the abrasive compound or a coolant.

Polishing machine and method of dissipating heat therefrom

A method of polishing semiconductor wafers and apparatus therefore are described. According to the present invention, a semiconductor wafer mounted on the lower side of a wafer mounting plate may be polished on a polishing pad by the front referenced polishing technique due to a flexibility of the wafer mounting plate to make the same to conform in detail with the backside contour of the wafer under polishing pressure and a selected flexibility differential between a wafer holding region and the outer moving region of the wafer mounting plate. An apparatus includes the wafer mounting plate that also works as a vacuum chuck plate is constructed out of a flexible thin disc of hard plastics, a central round region is used for a wafer holding region facing the backside of the wafer and the outside annular region is more flexible to work as a moving region, a pan-shaped rubber sheet is secured to a ring projection, the wafer mounting disc is adhered to the inner periphery of the rubber sheet at and along the periphery thereof to generate a sealed space, passes for vacuum communication and for a compressed air supply are formed through a rotary shaft, and vacuum chuck holes are communicated with the vacuum pass and the compressed air pass is in communication with a sealed space in the wafer holder.

Growing community of inventors

Nishigo-mura, Japan

Hiromasa Hashimoto