The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 11, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 12, 1998
Michael A Maxim, San Jose, CA (US);
Michael Kocsis, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Ning Hsieh, Cupertino, CA (US);
Matthew Prince, Portland, OR (US);
Kenneth C Cadien, Portland, OR (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for compensating for the effects of nonuniform planarization in chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) such as the erosion occurring from the removal of titanium nitride/tungsten films is disclosed. In the context of alignment marks, dummy marks are disposed on both sides of the actual alignment marks providing a similar feature density as the alignment marks. During the CMP, the dummy marks reside in the area of nonuniform erosion, leaving the actual marks in an area of uniform erosion. The present invention may also be used to control underlayer erosion variations in the high feature density device areas adjacent to the low feature density open areas by providing dummy features in the low feature density areas.