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:
Jun. 24, 2014
Filed:
Jul. 07, 2011
Sivakumar Dhandapani, San Jose, CA (US);
Asheesh Jain, Livermore, CA (US);
Charles C. Garretson, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Gregory E. Menk, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Stan D. Tsai, Fremont, CA (US);
Sivakumar Dhandapani, San Jose, CA (US);
Asheesh Jain, Livermore, CA (US);
Charles C. Garretson, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Gregory E. Menk, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Stan D. Tsai, Fremont, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for conditioning a polishing pad in a CMP system are provided. In one embodiment, a method includes performing a pre-polish process including urging a conditioner disk against a polishing surface of a polishing pad disposed in a polishing station, moving the conditioner disk relative to the polishing pad in a sweep pattern across the polishing surface while monitoring a rotational force value required to move the conditioner disk relative to the polishing pad, determining a metric indicative of an interaction between the conditioner disk and the polishing surface from the rotational force value, adjusting a polishing recipe in response to the metric, and polishing one or more substrates using the adjusted polishing recipe.