Ebara Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Hozumi Yasuda

Makoto Fukushima

Osamu Nabeya

Keisuke Namiki

Shingo Togashi

Satoru Yamaki

Tetsuji Togawa

Itsuki Kobata

Norio Kimura

Katsuhide Watanabe

Nobuyuki Takada

Ikutaro Noji

Mitsuhiko Shirakashi

Masayuki Kumekawa

Shunichiro Kojima

Tomoshi Inoue

Takayuki Saito

Kunihiko Sakurai

Yasushi Toma

Tsukuru Suzuki

Kaoru Yamada

Hideki Takayanagi

Yuji Makita

Shintaro Isono

Koji Saito

Kazuto Hirokawa

Kenichiro Saito

Hiroshi Yoshida

Takeshi Iizumi

Nobuyuki Takahashi

Koichi Takeda

Yu Ishii

You Ishii

Takayoshi Kawamoto

Yuji Yagi

Yoshihiro Gunji

Katsuya Okumura

Kenichi Kobayashi

Hiroyuki Yano

Atsushi Yoshida

Manabu Tsujimura

Seiji Katsuoka

Makoto Kashiwagi

Tadakazu Sone

Katsuyuki Aoki

Kaori Yoshida

Koichi Fukaya

Kunio Oishi

Tsuneo Torikoshi

Kenichi Akazawa

Shiro Mishima

Shingo Saito

Takamasa Nakamura

Masahiko Kishimoto

Masako Watase

Tomoyuki Yahiro

Keisuke Sakata

Kunio Tateishi

Akio Yanai

Yasuhiro Takada

A substrate processing apparatus includes a table, a pad holder, an elevating mechanism, and at least three centering mechanisms. The table is for supporting a substrate. The pad holder is for holding a polishing pad for polishing the substrate supported by the table. The elevating mechanism is for elevating the pad holder with respect to the substrate. The at least three centering mechanisms are for pushing the substrate supported by the table in a center direction of the table to position the substrate. The at least three centering mechanisms each include a rotation shaft arranged in a peripheral area of the table and a centering member mounted to the rotation shaft.

Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method

A polishing apparatus polishes a substrate by bringing the substrate into sliding contact with a polishing surface. The polishing apparatus includes: a substrate holder having a substrate holding surface for pressing the substrate against the polishing surface and further having a retaining ring arranged so as to surround the substrate and brought into contact with the polishing surface, the retaining ring being configured to be tiltable independently of the substrate holding surface; a rotating mechanism configured to rotate the substrate holder about its own axis; and at least one local load exerting mechanism configured to exert a local load on a part of the retaining ring in a direction perpendicular to the polishing surface. The at least one local load exerting mechanism is arranged so as not to rotate together with the substrate holder.

Polishing apparatus

A local polishing system comprises: a particle estimation unit () for estimating the film thickness distribution of a wafer; a local polishing region setting unit () for setting a local polishing region on the wafer based on the film thickness distribution; a polishing head selection unit () for selecting a polishing head based on the size of the local polishing region; a model storage () holding a recipe generating model that defines the relation between an input node and an output node, the input node being an attribute of the local polishing region, the output node comprising a recipe for a polishing process; a polishing recipe generator () that puts an attribute of the local polishing region set by the local polishing region setting unit () into the input node of the recipe generating model and determines a polishing recipe for polishing the local polishing region; and a polishing recipe transmitter () for transmitting data of the polishing recipe to a local polishing module () that performs local polishing.

Substrate processing control system, substrate processing control method, and program

A polishing head system capable of precisely controlling a film-thickness profile of a workpiece, such as a wafer, substrate, or panel, is disclosed. The polishing head system includes a polishing head having a plurality of piezoelectric elements configured to apply pressing forces to a workpiece, and an operation controller configured to determine instruction values of voltages to be applied to the plurality of piezoelectric elements.

Polishing head system and polishing apparatus

Polishing uniformity of a surface to be polished of a substrate is improved by appropriately according with a state of the surface to be polished during polishing. A substrate processing apparatus includes a tablefor supporting a substrate WF, a pad holderfor holding a polishing padfor polishing the substrate WF supported by the table, an elevating mechanism for elevating the pad holderwith respect to the substrate WF, a swing mechanism for swinging the pad holderin a radial direction of the substrate WF, supporting membersA andB for supporting the polishing padswung to outside the tableby the swing mechanism, and driving mechanismsandfor adjusting at least one of a height and a distance to the substrate WF of the supporting memberwhile polishing the substrate WF.

To improve uniformity in polishing of a polished surface of a substrate regardless of a tolerance of a diameter of the substrate. A substrate processing apparatus includes a table, a pad holder, a swing mechanism, a supporting memberA,B, a measuring instrument, and a driving mechanism. The tablesupports a substrate WF. The pad holderholds a polishing pad. The polishing padpolishes the substrate WF supported to the table. The swing mechanism swings the pad holder. The supporting memberA,B supports the polishing padswung to outside the tableby the swing mechanism. The measuring instrumentis configured to measure a diameter of the substrate WF. The driving mechanismadjusts a position of the supporting memberA,B with respect to the substrate WF supported to the tableaccording to the diameter of the substrate WF measured by the measuring instrument

Disclosed is a polishing head for a polishing apparatus for polishing a quadrangular substrate using a polishing pad attached to a polishing table, comprising a head body portion, a plurality of elastic bags disposed in a surface of the head body portion, which is to face the polishing table, and a substrate holding plate for holding the substrate, the substrate holding plate being pressed by the elastic bags in a direction away from the head body portion, the head body portion being provided with channels for bags, which are in communication with the respective elastic bags, the polishing head further including at least two support plates disposed between the elastic bags on one hand and the substrate holding plate on the other, the elastic bags being configured to press the substrate holding plate through the support plates.

Polishing head and polishing apparatus

Provided is a substrate holding device used in a substrate polishing apparatus that polishes a substrate using a polishing pad. The substrate holding device includes: a retainer ring configured to hold a peripheral edge of the substrate; and a drive ring fixed to the retainer ring so as to rotate together with the retainer ring. The surface of the retainer ring at the polishing pad side has a convex portion at a position other than an innermost circumference following a shape of the drive ring.

Substrate holding device, substrate polishing apparatus, and method of manufacturing the substrate holding device

One object is to provide a polishing machine and a polishing method capable of improving a processing accuracy on the surface of an object. A method of polishing an object is provided. Such a method comprises: a first step of polishing an object by moving the object and a first polishing pad having a smaller dimension than that of the object relative to each other while the first polishing pad is made to contact the object, a second step of polishing the object, after the first step of polishing, by moving the object and a second polishing pad having a larger dimension than that of the object relative to each other while the second polishing pad is made to contact the object, and a step of detecting the state of the surface of the object before the first step of polishing.

Polishing machine and a polishing method for a substrate

A polishing apparatus has a polishing pad, a top ring for holding a semiconductor wafer, and a vertical movement mechanism operable to move the top ring in a vertical direction. The polishing apparatus also has a distance measuring sensor operable to detect a position of the top ring when a lower surface of the top ring is brought into contact with the polishing pad, and a controller operable to calculate an optimal position of the top ring to polish the semiconductor wafer based on the position detected by the distance measuring sensor. The vertical movement mechanism includes a ball screw mechanism operable to move the top ring to the optimal position.

A polishing apparatus capable of precisely controlling a polishing profile, particularly a polishing profile in an edge portion, of a wafer is disclosed. The polishing apparatus includes: a top ring shaft; a housing fixed to the top ring shaft; a flexible membrane configured to press a wafer against a polishing pad; a top ring body configured to hold the flexible membrane; a retaining ring coupled to the top ring body and disposed so as to surround the flexible membrane; a gimbal mechanism configured to allow the top ring body and the retaining ring to tilt with respect to the housing; and a local load exerting mechanism configured to exert a downward local load on a part of the retaining ring.

Substrate holding device, and substrate polishing apparatus

According to one embodiment, a substrate polishing method includes: conveying a substrate to a position above a polishing pad by sucking the substrate by a first region of an elastic film; polishing the substrate while bringing the substrate into contact with the polishing pad; and lifting off the substrate by sucking the substrate by a second region of the elastic film, the second region being larger than the first region.

Substrate polishing method, top ring, and substrate polishing apparatus

A substrate holding apparatus is used for holding a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer in a polishing apparatus for polishing and planarizing the substrate. The substrate holding apparatus includes an elastic membrane, a top ring body for holding the elastic membrane, and a plurality of pressure chambers partitioned by at least one partition wall of the elastic membrane. The substrate is held by a lower surface of the elastic membrane and pressed against the polishing surface with a fluid pressure by supplying a pressurized fluid to the pressure chambers. The substrate holding apparatus further include a stopper configured to limit the inflation of the elastic membrane by being brought into contact with a part of the partition wall of the elastic membrane or an extending member extending from a rear surface of the elastic membrane whose surface serves as a substrate holding surface.

Substrate holding apparatus and polishing apparatus

A polishing apparatus includes a polishing table for supporting a polishing pad and a substrate holding device for pressing a substrate against the polishing pad. The substrate holding device includes an elastic film to form multiple pressure chambers to press the substrate, and a pressure control unit controlling pressure of the pressure chambers. The pressure control unit includes a first flow path connected to a first pressure chamber, and first and second pressure regulation mechanisms. The pressure control unit performs switching control from first pressure regulation mechanism to second pressure regulation mechanism when a set pressure within first pressure chamber reaches a first threshold value. Then, the pressure control unit performs switching control from second pressure regulation mechanism to first pressure regulation mechanism when the set pressure within the first pressure chamber reaches a second threshold value lower than the first threshold value.

Polishing apparatus and polishing method

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Hozumi Yasuda