Nippon Steel Corporation

Toshiya Kinoshita

Motonori Tamura

Hiroshi Kubo

Eiji Hashino

Ryuichi Araki

Setsuo Sato

Disclosed are CMP conditioners which can suppress microscratching of the surface of a semiconductor substrate and can realize stable CMP conditioner properties. The CMP conditioner according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a support member and a plurality of hard abrasive grains provided on a surface of the support member, wherein the plurality of hard abrasive grains are regularly arranged on the surface of the support member. The CMP conditioner according to the second aspect of the present invention comprises a support member and a plurality of hard abrasive grains provided on the surface of the support member, wherein the plurality of hard abrasive grains are arranged on the surface of the support member regularly and so as for the density of the hard abrasive grains to decrease from the inner side of the support member toward the outer side of the support member.

CMP conditioner, method for arranging hard abrasive grains for use in CMP conditioner, and process for producing CMP conditioner

A pad conditioner for semiconductor substrates for performing conditioning by slide contact with the abrasive surface of the polishing pad comprises a support member having a surface opposed to the polishing pad, a joining alloy layer covering the above surface of the support member, and a group of hard abrasive grains which are spread out and embedded in the joining alloy layer and supported by the joining alloy layer. At the contact interface between each of the hard abrasive grains and the above joining alloy, the surfaces of the hard abrasive grains are covered with either a layer of metallic carbides or a layer of metallic nitrides. Ag-base and Ag&mdash;Cu-base alloys, etc., can be used as the joining alloys.

Pad conditioner for semiconductor substrates

There is provided a conditioner which eliminates loading of a polishing pad, stabilizes polishing speeds and has a long usable life in metal CMP employing acidic slurry, which allows production of semiconductors at high quality and high yield, and which is characterized in that diamond grains are supported by monolayer brazing in a supporting material comprising a metal and/or alloy, using an alloy with a melting point of 600-1200&deg; C. which contains 0.5-20 wt % of at least one metal selected from among titanium, zirconium and chromium and 30-99.5 wt % of at least one metal selected from among gold, platinum and silver.

Polishing pad conditioner for semiconductor substrate

Method for producing pad conditioner for semiconductor substrates

A high purity and high density silicon carbide sintered body is made by controlling an amount of aluminum in an aluminum compound as a sintering additive from more than the solid solution upper limit in silicon carbide, preferably, as aluminum from 0.4 to 0.7% by weight of the total silicon carbide and aluminum compound. The sintered body has a density of 99.9% or more and can have a smooth surface with an average surface roughness of 2 nm or less when polished. Thus, this sintered body is suitable for producing a precise, rigid and heat resistant mirror substrate.

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Tokyo-to, Japan

Toshiya Kinoshita