Vlsi Technology, Inc.

Richard D Russ

Daniel Thomas

Calvin T Gabriel

Milind Ganesh Weling

Charles Franklin Drill

David E Henderson

A chemical-mechanical-polishing system having a slurry distribution system, a polisher, a deionized water supply, and a drain, includes a slurry filtration system. The filtration system has two filters for alternately filtering particles in slurry and being backflushed with deionized water. Two input valves have input ports connected to the slurry distribution system and output ports respectively connected to the filters for filtering. Two output valves have input ports respectively connected to the filters for receiving filtered slurry and output ports connected to the polisher. Two backflush valves have input ports connected to the deionized water supply and output ports respectively connected to backflush with deionized water; the output ports are also respectively connected to the input ports of the two output valves. Two drain valves have input ports respectively connected to the filters for receiving backflushed fluid and output ports connected to the drain. A pressure sensor disposed to sense pressure of slurry across the filters provide pressure indications which are used by control circuitry to open and close said valves to filter slurry or backflush the filters.

Chemical-mechanical-polishing system with continuous filtration

A complementary conditioning system for use in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). The present invention functions with a CMP machine adapted for polishing a semiconductor wafer having tungsten components fabricated thereon. A polishing pad is mounted on the CMP machine. The polishing pad has a polishing surface configured for polishing the semiconductor wafer and its tungsten components. The performance of the polishing surface is characterized by a polishing efficiency. A complementary end-effector is mounted on the CMP machine. The complementary end-effector is adapted to chemically complement the tungsten components on the semiconductor wafer. The complementary end-effector is further adapted to contact the polishing surface and improve the polishing efficiency by chemically enhancing the polishing surface, thereby obtaining a more efficient removal rate for the chemical mechanical polishing.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Richard D Russ