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Infineon Technologies North America Corp.

Infineon Technologies Richmond, LP

Joseph Page

Walter Hartner

Scott William Bailey

Jonathan Philip Davis

Jonathan Davis

A process and method for compensating for a radial non-uniformity on a wafer that includes the steps of: centering a rotational thickness non-uniformity of a film on the wafer about the axis of the spin susceptor following a CMP process; positioning a nozzle in the spin processing unit to direct the etching solution along a radius of the wafer; adjusting the flow of the etching solution from the nozzle; adjusting the rotational speed of the spin susceptor to control the residence time of the etching solution; and coordinating the rotational speed of the spin susceptor, flow of etching solution and positioning of the nozzle to maximize the removal of material. The process may be utilized to compensate for the bowl-shaped non-uniformities of an STI oxide. These non-uniformities are compensated for and addressed after a CMP process.

Deglaze route to compensate for film non-uniformities after STI oxide processing

A method for polishing a semiconductor wafer includes providing a semiconductor wafer having topographical features and forming a dielectric layer on the semiconductor wafer to fill portions between the features. The dielectric layer is planarized across the entire semiconductor wafer for a first portion of a polishing process. The dielectric layer is polished for bulk removal of the dielectric layer for a remaining portion of the polishing process.

Two step chemical mechanical polishing process

A method for planarizing a dielectric layer on a semiconductor wafer while eliminating a mask and etch step, in accordance with the present invention includes providing a semiconductor wafer having trenches formed in a trench region of a substrate, and forming a dielectric layer on the semiconductor wafer to fill the trenches whereby up features form on flat surfaces of the wafer. An edge portion of the semiconductor wafer is polished to remove a portion of the dielectric layer about the edge portions of the semiconductor wafer. The dielectric layer is polished across the entire semiconductor wafer by employing a single non-stacked polishing pad and a slurry to planarize the trench regions and the up features in a single polish step such that a mask step and etch step for reducing the up features are eliminated from the polishing process.

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Mechanicsville, VA, United States of America

Joseph Page