Applied Materials, Inc.

Gtat Corporation

Twin Creeks Technologies, Inc.

Other

Twin Creeks Technology, Inc.

Steven M Zuniga

Hung Chih Chen

Jeonghoon Oh

Andrew J Nagengast

Jay Gurusamy

Thomas H Osterheld

Charles C Garretson

Manoocher Birang

Sen-Hou Ko

Douglas R McAllister

Stacy Meyer

James Chang Wang

Venkata R Balagani

Michael Jon Fong

Aden Martin Allen

Romain Beau De Lamenie

Trung Tri Doan

Sidney P Huey

Samuel Chu-Chiang Hsu

Gautam Shashank Dandavate

Danny Cam Toan Lu

Jeffrey P Schmidt

Martin S Wohlert

Kerry F Hughes

Jian Lin

Thomas B Brezoczky

Jagan Rangarajan

Tsz-Sin Siu

Shaun Van Der Veen

Fred Conrad Redeker

Robert D Tolles

Edward Golubovsky

Derek G Aqui

Shou-Sung Chang

Gopalakrishna B Prabhu

Ming-Kuei Tseng

Keenan Leon Guerrero

Brian J Brown

Simon Yavelberg

Kapila P Wijekoon

Ekaterina A Mikhaylichenko

Steven T Mear

Steven Mark Reedy

Ming Kuie Tseng

Paul D Butterfield

Boris T Govzman

Vladimir Galburt

Jonathan Paul Domin

Sasson Roger Somekh

Mohsen Salek

David J Lischka

Anthony Joseph Senn

Aditya Agarwal

Eric Lau

Bum Jick Kim

Justin Ho Kuen Wong

Chih Hung Chen

Ramakrishna Cheboli

Adrian Blank

Kirk G Liebscher

Balasubramaniam Coimbatore Jaganathan

Michael A Anderson

John M White

Boguslaw A Swedek

Christopher John Petti

Stephen J Blumenkranz

Dominic J Benvegnu

Rajeev Bajaj

Jeffrey Drue David

Shijian Li

Stan D Tsai

Jun Qian

Benjamin Cherian

Kun Xu

Hui W Chen

Doyle E Bennett

Jimin Zhang

Gregory E Menk

Ramin Emami

Gopal Prabhu

Edwin C Suarez

Huanbo Zhang

Bret W Adams

Lawrence M Rosenberg

Erik S Rondum

Virendra V S Rana

Anand N Iyer

Benjamin A Bonner

Garlen C Leung

Michael W Richter

Thomas Li

Garrett Ho Yee Sin

Gerald John Alonzo

Venkateswaran Subbaraman

Peter McReynolds

Zhenhua Zhang

Yutao Ma

Dmitry Sklyar

Takashi Fujikawa

Jin Yi

A chemical mechanical polishing apparatus includes a platen to support a polishing pad, a carrier head to hold a substrate against a polishing surface of the polishing pad, a motor to generate relative motion between the platen and the carrier head so as to polish an overlying layer on the substrate, an in-situ vibration monitoring system including a light source to emit a light beam and a sensor that receives a reflection of the light beam from a reflective surface of the polishing pad, and a controller configured to detect exposure of an underlying layer due to the polishing of the substrate based on measurements from the sensor of the in-situ pad vibration monitoring system.

Chemical mechanical polishing vibration measurement using optical sensor

Some implementations of a retaining ring has an inner surface having a first portion formed of multiple planar facets and a second portion that adjoins the first portion along a boundary and includes a frustoconical surface that is sloped downwardly from outside in. Some implementations of the retaining ring have a crenellated or serpentine inner surface, and/or an inner surface with alternating region of different surface properties or different tilt angles.

Retaining ring having inner surfaces with features

Embodiments herein include high throughput density chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) modules and customizable modular CMP systems formed thereof. In one embodiment, a polishing module features a carrier support module, a carrier loading station, and a polishing station. The carrier support module features a carrier platform and one or more carrier assemblies. The one or more carrier assemblies each comprise a corresponding carrier head suspended from the carrier platform. The carrier loading station is used to transfer substrates to and from the carrier heads. The polishing station comprises a polishing platen. The carrier support module, the substrate loading station, and the polishing station comprise a one-to-one-to-one relationship within each of the polishing modules. The carrier support module is positioned to move the one or more carrier assemblies between a substrate polishing position disposed above the polishing platen and a substrate transfer position disposed above the substrate loading station.

High throughput polishing modules and modular polishing systems

A chemical mechanical polishing touch-up tool includes a pedestal configured to support a substrate, a plurality of jaws configured to center the substrate on the pedestal, a loading ring to apply pressure to an annular region on a back side of the substrate on the pedestal, a polishing ring to bring a polishing material into contact with an annular region on a front side of the substrate that is aligned with the annular region on the back side of the substrate, and a polishing ring actuator to rotate the polishing ring to cause relative motion between the polishing ring and the substrate.

Chemical mechanical polishing correction tool

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a multiple disk pad conditioner and methods of using the multiple disk pad conditioner during a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. The multiple disk pad conditioner has a plurality of conditioning heads having conditioning disks affixed thereto. The multiple disk pad conditioner can include a conditioning arm, and a plurality of conditioning heads attached to the conditioning arm. Each of the plurality of conditioning heads has a conditioning disk affixed thereto. In some embodiments, each of the conditioning heads include a rotational axis, wherein each of the rotational axes is disposed a distance apart in a first direction that extends along the length of the conditioning arm.

Multiple disk pad conditioner

A carrier head for chemical mechanical polishing includes a base assembly and a membrane assembly connected to the base assembly. The membrane assembly includes a membrane support, an inner membrane secured to the membrane support, wherein the inner membrane forms a plurality of individually pressurizable inner chambers between an upper surface of the membrane and the membrane support, and an outer membrane secured to the membrane support and extending below the inner membrane, the outer membrane having an inner surface and an outer surface, wherein the outer membrane defines a lower pressurizable chamber between the inner surface of the outer membrane and a lower surface of the inner membrane, wherein the inner surface is positioned for contact by a lower surface of the inner membrane upon pressurization of one or more of the plurality of chambers, and wherein the outer surface is configured to contact a substrate.

Dual membrane carrier head for chemical mechanical polishing

The present disclosure is directed towards polishing modules for performing chemical mechanical polishing of a substrate. The substrate may be a semiconductor substrate. The polishing modules described have a plurality of pads, such as polishing pads, disposed within a single polishing station. The pads are configured to remain stationary during processing, such as during polishing or buff operations. Either an x-y gantry assembly or a head actuation assembly is coupled to a system body of a polishing module and is configured to move a carrier head over the pads. Between process operations the polishing pads may be indexed to expose a new polishing pad to the carrier head.

Modular chemical mechanical polisher with simultaneous polishing and pad treatment

A polishing system includes a carriage arm having an actuator disposed on a lower surface thereof. The actuator includes a piston and a roller coupled to a distal end of the piston. The polishing system includes a polishing pad and a substrate carrier suspended from the carriage arm and configured to apply a pressure between a substrate and the polishing pad. The substrate carrier includes a housing, a retaining ring, and a membrane. The substrate carrier includes an upper load ring disposed in the housing. The roller of the actuator is configured to contact the upper load ring during relative rotation between the substrate carrier and the carriage arm. The actuator is configured to apply a load to a portion of the upper load ring thereby altering the pressure applied between the substrate and the polishing pad.

Polishing head with local wafer pressure

Embodiments herein generally relate to chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) systems used in the manufacturing of electronic devices. In one embodiment, a substrate carrier for polishing a surface of a substrate includes a retaining ring configured to surround a substrate during a polishing process. The retaining ring includes a first surface that is configured to contact a surface of a polishing pad during the polishing process, a second surface that is on a side of the retaining ring that is opposite to the first surface, and an array of recesses formed in the second surface. The substrate carrier for polishing a surface of a substrate also includes a plurality of load bearing pins where each load bearing pin of the plurality of load bearing pins includes a contact surface and a body that has a length, and at least a portion of the length of each load bearing pin of the plurality of load bearing pins is disposed within each recess of the array of recesses and the contact surface of each load bearing pin of the plurality of load bearing pins is positionable relative to a surface of the recess in which it is disposed during the polishing process.

Polishing head retaining ring tilting moment control

A polishing apparatus includes a support configured to receive and hold a substrate in a plane, a polishing pad affixed to a cylindrical surface of a rotary drum, a first actuator to rotate the drum about a first axis parallel to the plane, a second actuator to bring the polishing pad on the rotary drum into contact with the substrate, and a port for dispensing a polishing liquid to an interface between the polishing pad and the substrate.

Roller for location-specific wafer polishing

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) systems, and more particular, to modular polishing systems used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. In one embodiment, a polishing system includes a first portion having a plurality of polishing stations disposed therein, and a second portion coupled to the first portion, the second portion comprising a substrate cleaning system. The substrate cleaning system comprises a wet-in/dry-out substrate cleaning module comprising a chamber housing which defines a chamber volume. The polishing system further includes a substrate handler located in the second portion, where the substrate handler is positioned to transfer substrates to or from the wet-in/dry-out substrate cleaning module through one or more openings formed in one or more sidewalls of the chamber housing.

Substrate handling in a modular polishing system with single substrate cleaning chambers

A wafer processing device may include a wafer exchanger including two or more blades, each of the two or more blades may be configured to receive a wafer, the two or more blades may be rotatable about an axis on a single horizontal plane, and the two or more blades may be movable between at least a load cup and a robot access location; wherein the load cup may include a wafer station that is vertically moveable relative a blade located in the load cup and may be configured to remove a wafer from a blade located in the load cup and place a wafer on a blade located in the load cup. Other devices, load cups and methods are also disclosed herein.

Wafer processing tools and methods thereof

A membrane for a CMP carrier head includes a circular lower portion that provides a substrate mounting surface for a central region of a substrate, a first plurality of flaps that extend upward from the circular lower portion to form a plurality of inner chambers, an annular upper portion that provides a lower surface for applying pressure to an annular outer region of the substrate, and a second plurality of flaps that extend upward from the annular upper portion to form a plurality of independently pressurizable outer chambers. The annular upper portion surrounds the circular lower portion and is vertically offset from the circular lower portion such that the lower surface is positioned above a plane defined by the circular lower portion, and the annular upper portion is coupled to an outermost flap of the first plurality of flaps.

Membrane for carrier head with segmented substrate chuck

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods of manufacturing polishing platens for use on a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) system and polishing platens formed therefrom. A method of manufacturing a polishing includes positioning a polishing platen on a support of a manufacturing system. The manufacturing system includes the support and a cutting tool facing there towards. Here, the polishing platen includes a cylindrical metal body having a polymer layer disposed on a surface thereof and the polymer layer has a thickness of about 100 μm or more. The method further includes removing at least a portion of the polymer layer using the cutting tool to form a polishing pad-mounting surface. Beneficially, the method may be used to form a pad-mounting surface having a desired flatness or shape, such as a concave or convex shape.

Polishing platens and polishing platen manufacturing methods

Growing community of inventors

Soquel, CA, United States of America

Steven M Zuniga