초록 ▼

An improved and new apparatus and process for simulating chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) processes, which allows changes in polish removal rates and removal rate uniformity to be measured online as a function of changes in process parameters without necessity to use monitor wafers and offline th

An improved and new apparatus and process for simulating chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) processes, which allows changes in polish removal rates and removal rate uniformity to be measured online as a function of changes in process parameters without necessity to use monitor wafers and offline thickness measurement tools, has been developed. The result is more efficient and lower cost process development for CMP.

대표청구항 ▼

An apparatus for simulating chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) of semiconductor substrates comprising: a rotatable platen and polishing pad for chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) a surface of a semiconductor wafer; a reservoir for a polishing slurry and means to dispense the slurry onto the polish

An apparatus for simulating chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) of semiconductor substrates comprising: a rotatable platen and polishing pad for chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) a surface of a semiconductor wafer; a reservoir for a polishing slurry and means to dispense the slurry onto the polishing pad; a counter-electrode embedded in said rotatable platen; a rotatable carrier holder and carrier having a plurality of electrodes embedded in the surface thereof; a means for holding said rotatable carrier holder and carrier in juxtaposition relative to said rotatable platen and polishing pad with an applied pressure between the carrier and the polishing pad; a means of applying a constant voltage between each electrode embedded in said rotatable carrier and said counter-electrode embedded in said rotatable platen; a means of measuring the current density in each said embedded electrode during polishing simulation; a means of storing in a computer memory data for current density versus polishing simulation time for each said electrode among the plurality of electrodes embedded in said rotatable carrier; a means of integrating the measured current density with polishing simulation time for each said electrode among the plurality of electrodes embedded in said rotatable carrier; and a means of storing in a computer memory factors, generally called “Sherwood Numbers”, which are the integrated current density with polishing simulation time for each said electrode among the plurality of electrodes embedded in said rotatable carrier.