International Business Machines Corporation

Matthew Kilpatrick Miller

Erick G Walton

Matthew J Rutten

Terrance M Wright

Clifford Owen Morgan, Iii

Richard John Lebel

Timothy Scott Chamberlin

Robert Albin Jurjevic

An apparatus for polishing a semiconductor wafer is provided comprising a wafer carrier to provide a force against a wafer and a rotating polishing pad during the polishing operation and a polishing slurry distributor device disposed to provide a spray of the slurry on the polishing pad. The wafer is polished using less slurry than a conventional polishing apparatus while still maintaining the polishing rates and polishing uniformity of the prior art polishing apparatus. A preferred spraying means is a closed elongated tube having a plurality of openings which tube is positioned over at least one-half the diameter of the polishing pad and a polishing slurry under pressure is directed onto the surface of the pad, preferably in a substantially transverse spray stream.

Slurry injection technique for chemical-mechanical polishing

The present invention relates to a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) machine and method in which at least one polishing device is provided with a vertically-oriented polishing surface and a slurry delivery mechanism. As a result, the footprint of the machine is greatly reduced and the prevention of contaminants embedding in the polishing device can be promoted.

Vertical polishing device and method

A desired reagent is delivered to a workpiece undergoing a chemical mechanical polishing process with a chemical mechanical planarization apparatus. A slurry and polishing pad are provided for the polishing process. Reagent containing microcapsules are also provided, the microcapsules encapsulating a desired reagent. The workpiece is polished with a combination of the slurry, the polishing pad, and the microcapsules, wherein the encapsulated reagents are controllably released during the polishing step via manipulation of a polishing parameter. In one embodiment, the microcapsules are included in the slurry. In an alternate embodiment, the microcapsules are embedded within the polishing pad.

Polishing pad with controlled release of desired micro-encapsulated

Disclosed is an improved apparatus and method for polishing a semiconductor wafer, which involves mounting the wafer to a carrier assembly. The wafer carrier assembly has been split into two plates which are joined by springs around the peripheries. The wafer carrier assembly is universally mounted on a rotation shaft which rotates the wafer carrier assembly during cleaning. An adjustment screw tilts the upper plate relative to the lower plate. The adjustment screw can be located at any predetermined point on a circle around the rotation shaft. Since the bottom plate is forced relatively flat by contact with a polishing pad, the net effect of the wafer carrier assembly is to apply increased pressure to the wafer edge under the screw. This provides for an even polishing action to compensate for otherwise non-uniform radial polishing action on the wafer surface.

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Burlington, VT, United States of America

Matthew Kilpatrick Miller