Shin-etsu Handotai Co., Ltd.

Seh America, Inc.

Fujikoshi Machinery Corp.

Fujibo Holdings, Inc.

Michito Sato

Kaoru Ishii

Junichi Ueno

Yosuke Kanai

Yuya Nakanishi

Masaaki Oseki

Hiromi Kishida

Yukio Mukaino

Hiroaki Fukabori

Masami Nakano

Tatsuo Abe

Tatsuo Enomoto

Masataka Takagi

Yoshihide Kawamura

Ryosuke Yoda

Shigeyoshi Nezu

Hiroshi Yoshida

Brian D West

A method for polishing a wafer in order to correct a shape of a polished wafer subjected to polishing, by pressing the wafer to a polishing pad while continuously supplying a composition for polishing containing water to perform correction-polishing, the method including the steps of: measuring the shape of the polished wafer before performing the correction-polishing; determining, in accordance with the measured shape of the polished wafer, a kind and concentration of a surfactant to be contained in the composition for polishing; and performing the correction-polishing while supplying the composition for polishing adjusted on a basis of the determined kind and concentration of the surfactant. This provides a method and apparatus for polishing a wafer that make it possible to reduce, in the latter polishing step, a variation in the shape of the wafer that occurred in a preceding polishing step.

Method and apparatus for polishing wafer

A polishing apparatus including: a turntable with an attached polishing pad; a polishing head that holds a wafer; a tank that stores a polishing agent; a polishing agent supply mechanism which supplies the stored polishing agent to the polishing pad; a waste liquid receiver which collects the polishing agent flowing from the turntable; and a circulation mechanism which is connected to the waste liquid receiver and supplies the collected polishing agent to the tank, the polishing agent is supplied to the polishing pad from the tank with the polishing agent supply mechanism, the used polishing agent which flows from the turntable is collected by the waste liquid receiver, a surface of the wafer held by the polishing head is rubbed against the pad to polish it while supplying the collected polishing agent to the tank to circulate the polishing agent, and the waste liquid receiver is fixed to the turntable and the waste liquid receiver having a bottom plate and a removable side plate.

Polishing apparatus with a waste liquid receiver

A turn table transport carriage configured to carry a turn table removed from a polishing apparatus or turn table which is to be disposed to the polishing apparatus, turn table transport carriage including a turn table holding section configured to hold the turn table, support base which supports the turn table holding section from a lower side, elevating mechanism which moves up and down the turn table holding section, and inclination mechanism which inclines the turn table holding section holding the turn table, the turn table transport carriage being characterized by enabling carrying the turn table in a state where the turn table holding section holding the turn table is inclined by the inclination mechanism. Consequently, there is provided the turn table transport carriage which has a narrow width at the time of carrying the turn table and can reduce a width of a passage for carrying the turntable.

Turn table transport carriage

A method for measuring a template includes: preparing a measurement wafer and measuring a thickness of the measurement wafer; mounting the template on a reference plane; housing the measurement wafer in the concave portion of the template; measuring heights of the annular member and the measurement wafer from the reference plane in a state where a load is applied to the annular member of the template and the measurement wafer by using a pressing jig; and calculating a depth of the concave portion of the template in the state where the load is applied by using the pressing jig from the measured thickness of the measurement wafer and the heights of the annular member and the measurement wafer. Consequently, it is possible to measure the depth of the concave portion of the template in a state closer to a state during polishing than that realized by a conventional measuring method.

Method for measuring template and method for evaluating same

A polishing method including rubbing a wafer held by holding means against a polishing pad attached to a turntable while cooling the turntable by supplying a refrigerant to a refrigerant flow path provided in the turntable which is driven to rotate by a motor, thereby performing polishing, the polishing method being characterized in that, during standby after end of the polishing of the wafer and before performing the polishing of a next wafer, a flow volume of the refrigerant is controlled to be less than a flow volume of the refrigerant during the polishing where the wafer is polished, the turntable is rotated by the motor, and a water retaining liquid having a temperature adjusted to a room temperature or more is supplied to the polishing pad.

Polishing method and polishing apparatus

A polishing apparatus which is an index system polishing apparatus which includes a polishing head for holding a wafer, a plurality of turn tables to which polishing pads for polishing the wafer are attached, and a loading/unloading stage for loading the wafer to the polishing head or unloading the wafer from the polishing head, and which polishes the wafer while switching the turn tables to be used for polishing the wafer held at the polishing head by causing the polishing head to perform rotation movement, the polishing apparatus including a turn table upward and downward movement mechanism which allows the turn table to move upward and downward. With this polishing apparatus, it is possible to reduce an amount of displacement caused when moment load is applied on the polishing head during polishing.

Polishing apparatus and wafer polishing method

A method for manufacturing a polishing head, includes: forming, on a lower end surface of an intermediate plate, a groove which extends from an inlet of an incompressible fluid to an outer peripheral portion of the intermediate plate and a groove which extends from an outlet of air to the outer peripheral portion of the intermediate plate, also including, after attaching an elastic film to a lower end surface of a rigid ring and coupling an upper end surface of the rigid ring with the lower end surface of the intermediate plate to form a space section: depressurizing the inside of the space section; and discharging the air in the space section from the outlet while pouring the incompressible fluid into the space section from the inlet after the depressurizing, and closing the inlet and outlet to seal the incompressible fluid in the space section.

Method for manufacturing polishing head, polishing head, and polishing apparatus

A polishing apparatus includes: a plurality of polishing heads for holding a wafer, a polishing pad for polishing the wafer, a rotatable turn table having the polishing pad attached thereto, a turn table driving mechanism for rotating the turn table, a plurality of wafer-detecting sensors for detecting coming off of the wafer from the polishing head during polishing, wherein the polishing apparatus has the wafer-detecting sensor disposed above peripheral portions of the respective polishing heads and on each downstream side in a rotation direction of the turn table with respect to the respective polishing heads. The polishing apparatus can detect coming off of a wafer from a polishing head during polishing more rapidly, and can prevent a breakage of the wafer thereby.

Polishing apparatus

A polishing method including polishing to polish a surface of a wafer by sliding the wafer held by a polishing head on a surface of a polishing pad while supplying a polishing slurry to the polishing pad attached to a turntable, the method including correlation derivation to obtain a correlation between a surface temperature of the polishing pad and a haze level of a wafer polished with the use of the polishing pad in advance before performing the polishing, and also the wafer is polished in the polishing while controlling the surface temperature of the polishing pad based on the correlation between the surface temperature of the polishing pad and the haze level of the wafer polished with the use of the polishing pad. Consequently, the polishing method can control a haze in polishing a wafer and thereby prolong the service life of the polishing pad.

Polishing method

Provided is a polishing pad capable of sufficiently reducing minute defects to be generated after polishing on a workpiece which are detected in measurement for a particle size of 26 nm or smaller and capable of providing the workpiece with excellent surface flatness. The polishing pad includes a polishing layer having a polishing surface to polish a workpiece, and includes, in the side opposite to the polishing surface of the polishing layer, an intermediate layer having an amount of deformation C larger than that of the polishing layer, a hard layer having an amount of deformation C smaller than that of the polishing layer, and a cushion layer having an amount of deformation C larger than that of the intermediate layer, in which each of the amounts of deformations C is defined as an amount of deformation in the case of compression in a thickness direction, and the intermediate layer, the hard layer, and the cushion layer are laminated in this order from the side of the polishing layer.

Polishing pad and method for manufacturing the same

A final polishing method using a polishing agent that contains colloidal silica, ammonia, and hydroxyethyl cellulose in which the colloidal silica has a primary particle size of 20 nm or more and less than 30 nm, the hydroxyethyl cellulose has a weight average molecular weight of 400,000 to 700,000, and the polishing agent satisfies 1.5&#x2264;D/D&#x2264;2.5 where Dis a particle size having a cumulative volume percentage of 95% of particles contained in the polishing agent, and Dis a particle size having a cumulative volume percentage of 95% of the colloidal silica in case of dispersing the colloidal silica in water with a concentration identical to a colloidal silica concentration in the polishing agent, and using a polishing pad that exhibits a contact angle of 60&#xb0; or more 100 seconds after dropping pure water to the polishing pad that has been subjected to seasoning and then dried.

Final polishing method of silicon wafer and silicon wafer

A dressing apparatus for dressing a urethane foam pad, for use in polishing, by bringing diamond abrasive grains into sliding contact with the urethane foam pad, includes a support for holding the grains. The grains have multiple grit sizes, and include a high-grit diamond abrasive grain with a grit size of #170 or more and a low-grit diamond abrasive grain with a grit size of #140 or less. The grains are held by the support such that height positions of dressing surfaces of the grains are on the same plane. The dressing surfaces come into contact with the urethane foam pad. As a result, a dressing apparatus is capable of sufficiently roughening the surface of the urethane foam pad by one-time dressing without closing holes of the foaming part of the urethane foam pad, enabling short dressing time, long dressing interval, and inhibition of lowering of productivity.

Apparatus for dressing urethane foam pad for use in polishing

A semiconductor wafer having sag formed at an outer periphery at the time of polishing, wherein a displacement of the semiconductor wafer in a thickness direction is 100 nm or less between a center and a outer peripheral sag start position of the semiconductor wafer, and the center of the semiconductor wafer has a convex shape, an amount of outer peripheral sag of the semiconductor wafer is 100 nm or less, and the outer peripheral sag start position is away from an outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer toward the center or 20 mm or more away from an outer peripheral end of the semiconductor wafer toward the center, the outer peripheral portion being a measurement target of ESFQR.

Semiconductor wafer and manufacturing method thereof

A system for conditioning an alkaline etching solution for reducing contamination in a silicon wafer etching process. The system includes a conditioning tank for mixing a conditioned alkaline etching solution, the conditioned alkaline etching solution including a conditioning chemical; a conditioning chemical introduction system configured to add the conditioning chemical to the conditioning tank; and a buffer tank for storing the conditioned basic etching solution before using the conditioned alkaline etching solution in an etching process.

System for reducing wafer contamination using freshly, conditioned alkaline etching solution

An apparatus for transferring wafers between wafer holders such as wafer cassettes, etching drums and the like includes a tank for containing a liquid transfer medium in which the wafers can be transferred. The apparatus includes a wafer transfer unit that can transfer a plurality of wafers such as semiconductor wafers between wafer holders, and maintain the wafers in a desired relative orientation during transfer. For example, the wafers can be maintained in a parallel relationship. The apparatus can be used to automatically transfer wafers to etching drums without cross-indexing of the wafers and without manual handling of the wafers.

Growing community of inventors

Nishigo-mura, Japan

Michito Sato