Applied Materials, Inc.

Wei-Cheng Lee

Jeonghoon Oh

Andrew J Nagengast

Huanbo Zhang

Erik S Rondum

Anand N Iyer

Jie Diao

Thomas Li

Christopher Heung-Gyun Lee

Hui W Chen

Charles C Garretson

Edwin C Suarez

Chih Chung Chou

Eric Lau

Garrett Ho Yee Sin

King Yi Heung

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 polishing module including a chuck having a substrate receiving surface and a perimeter, and one or more polishing pad assemblies positioned about the perimeter of the chuck, wherein each of the one or more polishing pad assemblies are coupled to an actuator that provides movement of the respective polishing pad assemblies in one or more of a sweep direction, a radial direction, and a oscillating mode relative to the substrate receiving surface and are limited in radial movement to about less than one-half of the radius of the chuck as measured from the perimeter of the chuck.

Local area polishing system and polishing pad assemblies for a polishing system

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.

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos Hills, CA, United States of America

Wei-Cheng Lee