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:
Apr. 20, 2010
Filed:
Mar. 08, 2006
Zhihong Wang, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Yongqi HU, San Jose, CA (US);
Stan D. Tsai, Fremont, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for evaluating a conditioned electrochemical mechanical polishing pad are provided. A polishing pad is conditioned using a first set of process conditions. A sheet wafer and a residue wafer are polished on the polishing pad. The removal rates of one or more materials from the sheet wafer and the residue wafer are measured. A normalized removal rate is calculated. The polishing pad is further conditioned if the normalized removal rate is not within a minimum value and a maximum value. In one embodiment, the normalized removal rate comprises a ratio of the removal rate of the residue wafer to the removal rate of the sheet wafer.