Micron Technology Incorporated

U.S. Philips Corporation

Malcolm K Grief

Trung Tri Doan

Gurtej S Sandhu

Leendert De Bruin

Harald Godon

A chemical-mechanical polishing apparatus includes a slurry-wetted polishing pad attached to a substantially planar surface of a platen. A wafer carrier is positioned in close proximity to the platen, and it has a substantially planar surface to which one side of a semiconductor wafer is removably attachable so that an opposing side of the semiconductor wafer is disposed against the polishing pad. An actuator imparts a translational motion to the platen so that the polishing pad moves relative to and in polishing contact with the semiconductor wafer. A sensor detects a change in the imparted translational motion corresponding to a change in the coefficient of friction between the polishing pad and the opposing side of the semiconductor wafer indicative of a planar end point on the opposing side of the semiconductor wafer. The sensor preferably includes a laser and a laser detector using a laser reflection or laser interferometric method to detect the change in the imparted translational motion. Also, the apparatus preferably includes a controller coupled to the sensor and the actuator to adjust the actuator in response to the sensor detecting a change in the imparted translational motion.

Apparatus and method for planar end-point detection during

A method of the kind consisting in that a contact is obtained with an active zone (11) carried by a semiconductor substrate (10) by means of conductive contact studs (18a) located in the contact openings (16c) of an isolating layer (12) and in that then a metallic configuration of interconnections (22) is formed establishing the conductive connection with the conductive contact studs (18a). A separation layer (13) is provided between the isolating layer (12) and the conductive layer (18), which can be eliminated selectively with respect to the isolating layer (12). Thus, the isolating layer (12) retains its original flatness and the conductive contact studs (18a) have an upper level (20) exceeding slightly the level (21) of the isolating layer (12), thus favoring the contact between these contact studs (18a) and the metallic configuration of interconnections (22). Application in microcircuits having a high integration density.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Malcolm K Grief