Applied Materials, Inc.

Silicon Valley Group, Thermal Systems Llp

Robert A Ewald

Yuchun Wang

Manoocher Birang

Liang-Yuh Chen

Stan D Tsai

Yan Wang

Paul D Butterfield

Wei-Yung Hsu

Alain Duboust

Rashid Mavliev

Lakshmanan Karuppiah

Ralph M Wadensweiler

You Wang

Daniel A Carl

Jie Diao

Lawrence Duane Bartholomew

Renhe Jia

Robert J Bailey

John T Boland

Liang-Yun Chen

A method and apparatus for extending a polishing article lifetime on a polishing tool with multiple platens is described. The apparatus includes an advanceable roll to roll platen with multiple embodiments of a polishing article to be used thereon. The polishing article is adapted to perform a polishing process by removing conductive and dielectric material from a substrate while minimizing downtime of the polishing tool. In some embodiments, the polishing article may be a dielectric material or a conductive material and is configured to include a longer usable lifetime to minimize replacement and downtime of the tool.

Extended pad life for ECMP and barrier removal

An article of manufacture and apparatus are provided for processing a substrate surface. In one aspect, an article of manufacture is provided for polishing a substrate including polishing article comprising a body having at least a partially conductive polishing surface. An electrode is disposed below the polishing surface having a dielectric material therebetween. A plurality of apertures may be formed in the polishing surface and the dielectric material to at least partially expose the electrode to the polishing surface. A membrane may be disposed between the electrode and the polishing surface that is permeable to ions and current to promote continuity between the electrode and the polishing surface.

Conductive pad with ion exchange membrane for electrochemical mechanical polishing

A wafer processing system for delivering a processing gas and an inert gas to a chamber which includes a CVD processing region having a plurality of gas flow paths for conveying the gases to the chamber and exhausting them from the chamber. A flow control system is coupled to each of the exhaust gas flow paths and each of the process gas exhaust flow paths are separately controlled to maintain a constant rate of flow within each of the gas flow paths, independent of the accumulation of deposition byproducts. Utilization of a self-cleaning orifice allows a pressure differential measurement in a process exhaust line to measure flow. The wafer processing system is provided with load and unload regions surrounding the chamber(s), each having additional inert gas exhaust flow paths. A flow characteristic, preferably pressure differential across an orifice, of the gases in each of the regions is measured and a flow control unit is selectively adjusted to maintain a substantially constant exhaust flow rate from each of the regions, in order to compensate for any pressure imbalance across the chamber due to internal (thermal load) or external (environmental) asymmetry that would degrade the performance of an APCVD system.

Wafer processing reactor having a gas flow control system and method

Growing community of inventors

Aptos, CA, United States of America

Robert A Ewald