Applied Materials, Inc.

Alta Devices, Inc.

Vladimir Galburt

Steven M Zuniga

Andrew J Nagengast

Jay Gurusamy

Michael N Sugarman

Liang-Yuh Chen

Yan Wang

Alain Duboust

Charles C Garretson

Antoine P Manens

Donald J K Olgado

Brian J Brown

Alexander N Lerner

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

A carrier head for a polishing system includes a housing, a flexible membrane, a first plurality of pressure supply lines, a second plurality of pressure supply lines, and a valve assembly. The flexible membrane defines a multiplicity of independently pressurizable chambers. The valve assembly has a multiplicity of valves with each respective valve of the multiplicity of valves coupled to a respective pressure chamber from the multiplicity of independently pressurizable chambers. Each respective valve is configured to selectively couple the respective pressure chamber to one pressure supply line from a pair of pressure supply lines that include a pressure supply line from the first plurality of pressure supply lines and a pressure supply line from the second plurality of pressure supply lines.

Polishing carrier head with multiple angular pressurizable zones

A substrate processing system architecture includes an MOCVD reactor processing module coupled to a single three-level load lock chamber. The load lock has a heater at a first stationary location, a cold plate at a second secondary location, and a three-level transport system between the heater and cold plate. The transport system has two-position carrier transfer assembly with upper and lower stages, where the upper stage may move between an intermediate transfer level and an upper level proximate to the heater while the lower stage moves between a lower level proximate to the cold plate and the transfer level. The choreography of substrate transport between external loader, load lock and reactor allows substrates to be processed in the reactor while other substrates are post-process cooled, unloaded, and a new substrate loaded and preheated.

Processing system architecture with single load lock chamber

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods of electroprocessing a substrate. One embodiment of the present invention provides a method comprises pressing a substrate against a polishing pad with a force less than about two pounds per square inch, the substrate contacting a first electrode of the polishing pad, applying an electrical bias to the substrate with the first electrode relative to a second electrode of the polishing pad, wherein the second electrode is disposed below the second electrode, and biasing a third electrode disposed in the polishing pad radially outward of the second electrode.

Electroprocessing profile control

A method and apparatus for electroprocessing a substrate is provided. In one embodiment, a method for electroprocessing a substrate includes the steps of biasing a first electrode to establish a first electroprocessing zone between the electrode and the substrate, and biasing a second electrode disposed radially outward of substrate with a polarity opposite the bias applied tot he first electrode.

In a scrubber adapted to clean a semiconductor wafer, the torque of a brush rotation motor is monitored while a scrubber brush is in contact with the wafer and is being rotated by the motor. The position of the brush relative to the wafer may be adjusted based on the monitored torque to regulate the pressure applied to the wafer by the brush. Open loop positioning or closed loop control may be employed.

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Campbell, CA, United States of America

Vladimir Galburt