Ebara Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Motohiro Niijima

Taro Takahashi

Atsushi Shigeta

Kenji Terao

Mitsuo Tada

Shinro Ohta

Akihiko Ogawa

Hideyuki Isozaki

A polishing apparatus is used for polishing and planarizing a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer on which a conductive film such as a copper (Cu) layer or a tungsten (W) layer is formed. The polishing apparatus includes a polishing table having a polishing surface, a motor for rotating the polishing table, a top ring for holding a substrate and pressing the substrate against the polishing surface, a film thickness measuring sensor disposed in the polishing table for scanning a surface of the substrate, and a computing device for processing signals of the film thickness measuring sensor to compute a film thickness of the substrate.

Polishing apparatus and polishing method

A polishing method polishes and planarizes a substrate. The substrate is pressed against a polishing surface on a rotating polishing table. During polishing, the polishing table is rotated, and the surface, being polished, of the substrate is scanned by an eddy current sensor provided in the polishing table. An output of the eddy current sensor is monitored, and substrate damage is detected from a change in the output of the eddy current sensor. Further, an output of an end point detecting sensor obtained by scanning the surface of the substrate is monitored, and the polishing end point is detected from a change in the output of the end point detecting sensor. After detecting the polishing end point, an output of the end point detecting sensor or another sensor is monitored, and detecting a film left on a part of the substrate is performed.

Polishing method and apparatus

A seed crystal is lowered toward a melt, and a contact between the seed crystal and the melt is detected using an image captured by an imaging device. The temperature of the melt is adjusted to keep a meniscus of the melt in contact with the seed crystal. The temperature of the melt is then lowered to create a wingout extending from the seed crystal. The length and symmetry of the wingout is detected with an image captured by the imaging device, and a ribbon of crystal following the wingout starts to be lifted from the melt.

Method of and apparatus for growing ribbon of crystal

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Tokyo, Japan

Motohiro Niijima