Applied Materials, Inc.

Thomas Li

Benjamin Cherian

Sidney P Huey

Jeonghoon Oh

Andrew J Nagengast

Jun Qian

Huanbo Zhang

Erik S Rondum

Anand N Iyer

Jie Diao

Christopher Heung-Gyun Lee

Wei-Cheng Lee

Steven M Zuniga

Boguslaw A Swedek

Dominic J Benvegnu

Jeffrey Drue David

Thomas H Osterheld

Doyle E Bennett

Sivakumar Dhandapani

David J Lischka

A method of polishing includes holding a substrate with a carrier head against a polishing surface of a polishing pad, generating relative motion between the substrate and polishing pad, applying a first pressure in a first cyclic waveform having a first frequency to a first region of the substrate, applying a second pressure in a second cyclic waveform having a different second frequency to a different second region of the substrate, during polishing of the substrate, monitoring the substrate with an in-situ motor torque monitoring system to generate a sequence of measured values, and determining a relative contribution to the sequence of measured values from the first region and second region based on distinguishing the first frequency from the second frequency.

Pressure signals with different frequencies during friction monitoring to provide spatial resolution

A method of polishing includes holding a substrate with a carrier head against a polishing surface of a polishing pad, generating relative motion between the substrate and polishing pad, applying a first pressure modulated by a first modulation function to a first region of the substrate, applying a second pressure modulated by a second modulation function that is orthogonal to the first modulation function to a second region of the substrate, during polishing of the substrate monitoring the substrate with an in-situ friction monitoring system to generate a sequence of measured values, and determining a relative contribution to the sequence of measured value from the first region and second region based on distinguishing the first frequency from the second frequency.

Pressure signals during motor torque monitoring to provide spatial resolution

Monitoring operations of a polishing system includes obtaining a time-based sequence of reference images of a component of the polishing system performing operations during a test operation of the polishing system, receiving from a camera a time-based sequence of monitoring images of an equivalent component of an equivalent polishing system performing operations during polishing of a substrate, determining a difference value for the time-based sequence of monitoring images by comparing the time-based sequence of reference images to the time-based sequence of monitoring image using an image processing algorithm, determining whether the difference value exceeds a threshold, and in response to determining the difference value exceeds the threshold, indicating an excursion.

Training a machine learning system to detect an excursion of a CMP component using time-based sequence of images

Detecting an excursion of a CMP component using time-based sequence of images

A method of generating a matrix to relate a plurality of controllable parameters of a chemical mechanical polishing system to a polishing rate profile includes polishing a test substrate. The test substrate is polished for a first period of time using baseline parameter values with a first parameter set to a first value, and the test substrate is polished for a second period of time using first modified parameter values with the first parameter set to a modified second value. A thickness of the test substrate is monitored during polishing, and a baseline polishing rate profile is determined for the first period of time and a first modified polishing rate profile is determined for the second period of time. The matrix is calculated based on the baseline parameter values, the first modified parameters, the baseline polishing rate profile and the first modified polishing rate profile.

Preston matrix generator

During polishing of a substrate a sequence of measured values is received from an in-situ motor torque monitoring system. Positions on the substrate of the region of lower coefficient of friction are calculated for at least two measured values from the sequence of measured values. A first measured value from the sequence of measured values at which the region of different coefficient of friction is at a first position in a first zone on the substrate is compared to a second measured value from the sequence of measured values at which the region of different coefficient of friction is at a second position in a different second zone on the substrate or is not below the substrate. Based on the comparison, which of the first zone or the second zone the overlying layer is clearing first to expose the underlying layer can be determined.

Motor torque endpoint during polishing with spatial resolution

Detecting an excursion of a CMP component using time-based sequence of images and machine learning

A retaining ring includes a generally annular body having an inner surface to constrain a substrate, an outer surface, and a bottom surface. The bottom surface has a plurality of channels extending from the outer surface to the inner surface and a plurality of islands separated by the channels and providing a contact area to contact a polishing pad. Each channel includes a recessed region adjacent the outer surface such that the channel is deeper in the recessed region than in a remainder of the channel. The recessed region and the remainder of the channel each have substantially uniform depth.

Retaining ring for CMP

A retaining ring includes a generally annular body having an inner surface to constrain a substrate and a bottom surface, the bottom surface having a plurality of channels extending from an outer surface to the inner surface, and a plurality of islands separated by the channels and providing a contact area to contact a polishing pad, wherein the contact area is about 15-40% of a plan area of the bottom surface.

A method of operating a polishing system includes polishing a substrate at a polishing station, the substrate held by a carrier head during polishing, transporting the substrate to an in-sequence optical metrology system positioned between the polishing station and another polishing station or a transfer station, measuring a plurality of spectra reflected from the substrate with a probe of the optical metrology system while moving the carrier head to cause the probe to traverse a path across the substrate and while the probe remains stationary, the path across the substrate comprising either a plurality of concentric circles or a plurality of substantially radially aligned arcuate segments, and adjusting a polishing endpoint or a polishing parameter of the polishing system based on one or more characterizing values generated based on at least some of the plurality of spectra.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Thomas Li