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:
Dec. 31, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 08, 2000
William H. Ma, Fishkill, NY (US);
Adam D. Ticknor, Wappingers Falls, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) pad conditioner. The conditioner has a non-uniform conditioning surface with a plurality of conditioning elements. The non-uniform surface comprises a first section having a first cutting volume per unit width and a second section having a second cutting volume per unit width that is different from the first cutting volume per unit width. The difference in cutting volume may be provided by different projected widths of the individual conditioning elements, by a difference in the linear density between the two sections, or by a difference in the cutting depth. A CMP tool comprising a polishing pad, a conditioning pad having the disclosed structure, and a mechanism for moving the polishing pad relative to the pad conditioner is also provided. A method is further provided for uniformly conditioning a CMP pad using a conditioner having the structure described.