Applied Materials, Inc.

Jeonghoon Oh

Steven M Zuniga

Andrew J Nagengast

Hung Chih Chen

Charles C Garretson

Douglas R McAllister

Thomas B Brezoczky

Sidney P Huey

Gautam Shashank Dandavate

Danny Cam Toan Lu

Samuel Chu-Chiang Hsu

Stacy Meyer

James Chang Wang

Venkata R Balagani

Jeffrey P Schmidt

Martin S Wohlert

Michael Jon Fong

Kerry F Hughes

Romain Beau De Lamenie

Aden Martin Allen

Jian Lin

Trung Tri Doan

Thomas H Osterheld

Brian T West

Jamie Leighton

Tsz-Sin Siu

Michael Santiago Cox

Shou-Sung Chang

Simon Yavelberg

Edwin C Suarez

Huanbo Zhang

Eric Lau

Chih Chung Chou

Garrett Ho Yee Sin

Van H Nguyen

Steven Mark Reedy

Fred Conrad Redeker

Paul D Butterfield

Jianshe Tang

Jay Gurusamy

Gopalakrishna B Prabhu

Haosheng Wu

David Masayuki Ishikawa

King Yi Heung

Li-Qun Xia

Nag B Patibandla

Brian J Brown

Pravin K Narwankar

Tom K Cho

Banqiu Wu

Jian J Chen

Hui W Chen

Ralf Hofmann

Gregory E Menk

Yao-Hung Yang

Erik S Rondum

Roger M Johnson

Anand N Iyer

Jie Diao

David Datong Huo

Christopher Heung-Gyun Lee

Thomas Li

Yin Yuan

Gerald John Alonzo

Toshiaki Fujita

Tao Hou

Soundarrajan Jembulingam

Boguslaw A Swedek

Dominic J Benvegnu

Rajeev Bajaj

Harry Q Lee

Zheng Yuan

Tsutomu Tanaka

Daniel Redfield

Jun Qian

Robert D Tolles

Benjamin Cherian

Kun Xu

Jason Garcheung Fung

Lin Zhang

Jimin Zhang

Edward P Hammond

Umesh M Kelkar

Ala Moradian

Ashwin Chockalingam

Jonghoon Baek

Shuran Sheng

Hari N Soundararajan

Hassan G Iravani

Karthik Ramanathan

Ekaterina A Mikhaylichenko

Manoj A Gajendra

Nicholas Alexander Wiswell

Hui Chen

Uday Pai

James Omer L'Heureux

Chad Pollard

Jonathan Paul Domin

Daniel Martin

Dinkesh Huderi Somanna

A polishing system includes a platen to hold a polishing pad, a carrier head to hold a substrate against the polishing pad, a conditioner including a conditioner head to hold a conditioner disk against the polishing pad, a motor to move the conditioner head laterally movable relative to the platen, a conditioning disk cleaning station positioned adjacent the platen to clean the conditioning disk, and a controller configured to cause the motor to, during polishing of the substrate, move the conditioner head back and forth between a first position with the conditioner head over the polishing pad and a second position with the conditioner head in the conditioner disk cleaning station.

In-situ conditioner disk cleaning during CMP

A system and method for sequential single-sided CMP processing of opposite facing surfaces of a silicon carbide (SiC) substrate are disclosed. A method includes urging a first surface of a substrate against one of plurality of polishing pads, wherein the plurality of polishing pads are disposed on corresponding ones of a plurality of rotatable polishing platens. The method includes transferring, using the first side of the end effector, the substrate from the substrate carrier loading station to a substrate alignment station. The method includes transferring, using the first side of the end effector, the substrate from the substrate alignment station to a substrate carrier loading station. The method includes urging a second surface of the substrate against one of the plurality of polishing platens.

Substrate handling systems and methods for CMP processing

A chemical mechanical polishing apparatus includes a platen to support a polishing pad, a carrier head to hold a substrate against a polishing surface of the polishing pad, a motor to generate relative motion between the platen and the carrier head so as to polish an overlying layer on the substrate, an in-situ vibration monitoring system including a light source to emit a light beam and a sensor that receives a reflection of the light beam from a reflective surface of the polishing pad, and a controller configured to detect exposure of an underlying layer due to the polishing of the substrate based on measurements from the sensor of the in-situ pad vibration monitoring system.

Chemical mechanical polishing vibration measurement using optical sensor

Some implementations of a retaining ring has an inner surface having a first portion formed of multiple planar facets and a second portion that adjoins the first portion along a boundary and includes a frustoconical surface that is sloped downwardly from outside in. Some implementations of the retaining ring have a crenellated or serpentine inner surface, and/or an inner surface with alternating region of different surface properties or different tilt angles.

Retaining ring having inner surfaces with features

A body is brought into contact with a polishing pad of a polishing system, a polishing liquid is supplied to the polishing pad, relative motion between the body and the polishing pad is generated while the body contacts the polishing pad, a signal from an in-situ eddy current monitoring system during the relative motion while the body contacts the polishing pad, generating, and mechanical vibrations in the polishing system are detected based on a signal from the in-situ eddy current monitoring system.

Eddy current monitoring to detect vibration in polishing

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a multiple disk pad conditioner and methods of using the multiple disk pad conditioner during a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. The multiple disk pad conditioner has a plurality of conditioning heads having conditioning disks affixed thereto. The multiple disk pad conditioner can include a conditioning arm, and a plurality of conditioning heads attached to the conditioning arm. Each of the plurality of conditioning heads has a conditioning disk affixed thereto. In some embodiments, each of the conditioning heads include a rotational axis, wherein each of the rotational axes is disposed a distance apart in a first direction that extends along the length of the conditioning arm.

Multiple disk pad conditioner

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to chemical mechanical polishing systems (CMP) systems and processes used in the manufacturing of electronic devices. In particular, embodiments herein relate to methods of detecting non-conforming substrate processing events during a polishing process. In one embodiment, a method of processing a substrate on a polishing system includes urging a surface of a silicon carbide substrate against a polishing pad in the presence of a polishing fluid, determining a temperature of the polishing pad using a temperature sensor that is positioned above the platen, monitoring the temperature of the polishing pad, and, if the change in polishing pad temperature reaches a threshold value, initiating a response using a controller of the polishing system.

Methods of detecting non-conforming substrate processing events during chemical mechanical polishing

A retaining ring comprises a generally annular body. The body comprises a top surface, a bottom surface, an outer surface connected to the top surface at an outer top perimeter and the bottom surface at an outer bottom perimeter, and an inner surface connected to the top surface at an inner top perimeter and the bottom surface at an inner bottom perimeter. The inner surface comprises seven or more planar facets. Adjacent planar facets are connected at corners. The inner bottom perimeter comprises straight edges of the planar facets connected at the corners.

Retaining ring having inner surfaces with facets

Embodiments of a system and method for polishing substrates are provided. In one embodiment, a polishing system is provided that includes a polishing module having a platen, and a platen temperature control system. The platen temperature control system includes a PID controller, a fluid controller, and a heat exchanger. The flow controller is configured to control an amount of fluid provided from the heat exchanger to a channels of the platen in response to instructions provided by the PID controller.

Chemical mechanical polishing system with platen temperature control

A polishing system includes a platen having a top surface to support a main polishing pad. The platen is rotatable about an axis of rotation that passes through approximately the center of the platen. An annular flange projects radially outward from the platen to support an outer polishing pad. The annular flange has an inner edge secured to and rotatable with the platen and vertically fixed relative to the top surface of the platen. The annular flange is vertically deflectable such that an outer edge of the annular flange is vertically moveable relative to the inner edge. An actuator applies pressure to an underside of the annular flange in an angularly limited region, and a carrier head holds a substrate in contact with the polishing pad and is movable to selectively position a portion of the substrate over the outer polishing pad.

Polishing system with platen for substrate edge control

A retaining ring can be shaped by machining or lapping the bottom surface of the ring to form a shaped profile in the bottom surface. The bottom surface of the retaining ring can include flat, sloped and curved portions. The lapping can be performed using a machine that dedicated for use in lapping the bottom surface of retaining rings. During the lapping the ring can be permitted to rotate freely about an axis of the ring. The bottom surface of the retaining ring can have curved or flat portions.

Method of forming retaining ring with shaped surface

An apparatus and method for sequential application of cleaning fluids for improved maintenance of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) systems is disclosed. A method includes transferring a first substrate to a first polishing station of a plurality of polishing stations, polishing the first substrate at the first polishing station, transferring the first substrate to a second polishing station, and transferring a second substrate to the first polishing station. The method includes cleaning a first surface of a plurality of surfaces of the polishing system by dispensing a first cleaning fluid from a first one or more nozzles of a plurality of nozzles to direct the first cleaning fluid onto the first surface and dispensing a second cleaning fluid from the first one or more nozzles to direct the second cleaning fluid onto the first surface, where the second cleaning fluid is different from the first cleaning fluid.

Sequential application of cleaning fluids for improved maintenance of chemical mechanical polishing systems

A polishing system includes a platen having a top surface to support an annular polishing pad, a carrier head to hold a substrate in contact with the annular polishing pad, a support structure extending above the platen and to which one or more polishing system components are secured, and a support post. The platen is rotatable about an axis of rotation that passes through approximately a center of the platen. The first support post has an upper end coupled to and supporting the support structure and a lower portion that is supported on the platen or that extends through an aperture in the platen.

Polishing system with annular platen or polishing pad

A method includes receiving measurement data from multiple sensors positioned along a delivery line that delivers a liquid as a gas to one of a gas panel or a processing chamber; simulating, using a computer-generated model, one or more process parameters associated with the delivery line and a plurality of heater jackets positioned around the delivery line; comparing the measurement data with values of the one or more process parameters; and determining, based on at least a threshold deviation between the measurement data and the values of the one or more process parameters, that a fault exists that is associated with maintaining temperature within the delivery line consistent with a gaseous state of the liquid.

Parameter sensing and computer modeling for gas delivery health monitoring

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Jeonghoon Oh