Applied Materials, Inc.

Suzuki Kenji

Raijiro Koga

Gen Yasuhara

Yoshihiro Sunada

A wafer polishing apparatus comprising a polishing head having a retainer ring provided around the periphery of a wafer W for suppressing movement of the wafer W in the radial direction during polishing. The retainer ring comprises an attachment plate affixed to the polishing head , a ceramic friction ring brought into contact with a polishing pad , and a resin spacer provided between the attachment plate and the friction ring

Retaining ring with a three-layer structure

The present invention generally provides an apparatus and a method for conditioning a polishing pad in a polishing system. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a conditioning disk having conditioning elements disposed on the bottom surface and away from the center portion of the disk. In another embodiment, the apparatus includes a base plate and a ring-shaped plate in which the conditioning elements are disposed on the ring-shaped plate. In still another embodiment, the apparatus includes a conditioning disk having conditioning elements disposed on the bottom surface and away from the center portion of the disk and having brush bristles disposed on the center portion of the disk.

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Narita, Japan

Suzuki Kenji