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:
Aug. 10, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 06, 2001
Sanjay Dabral, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Anil K. Pant, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Planar Labs Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
In certain embodiments of the invention an ion exchange polish pad, which is used for polishing Copper layers formed on a semiconductor substrate, may be conditioned and/or reconditioned to regenerate its binding capacity for cations. Once bound to an ion exchange polish pad, cations for example may be exchanged for protons (H ) by exposing the ion exchange polish pad to a reconditioning medium(s). The exchange of cations with H reconditions the ion exchange material of an ion exchange polish pad so it is capable of binding and removing additional cations from a surface. In certain embodiments, a reconditioning head is used to recondition an ion exchange polish pad. A typical reconditioning process comprises elution of bound copper from ion exchange polish pad followed by protonation. Elution of bound copper may be accomplished by exposing an ion exchange polish pad to a strong acid solution, or similar chemical treatments.