International Business Machines Corporation

Robert B Lipori

Leping Li

William Joseph Surovic

Steven G Barbee

Arnold Halperin

Clifford Owen Morgan, Iii

James Albert Gilhooly

Cong Wei

Rock Nadeau

Anne Elizabeth McGuire

Gary R Doyle

Francis Walter Kazak

Kevin L Holland

A fluid collection apparatus having an accumulator for contacting a polishing surface of a polishing pad and collecting fluid from the polishing pad, a reservoir for receiving fluid from the accumulator, and a volume maintainer for maintaining a set volume of fluid in the reservoir.

Accumulator for slurry sampling

Rotary signal coupling in in-situ monitoring of a chemical-mechanical polishing process. A sensor fixed to a rotatable wafer carrier for creating a signal responsive to the chemical mechanical polishing process is coupled to a bottom half of a rotary transformer fixed to a rotating portion of the polisher. A top half of the rotary transformer, coupled to the bottom half of the rotary transformer, is fixed to a stationary portion of the polisher. The signal from the sensor is thus coupled through the rotary transformer to a process monitor.

Rotary signal coupling for chemical mechanical polishing endpoint

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Stamford, CT, United States of America

Robert B Lipori