CMP process using indicator areas to determine endpoint

Details CMP process using indicator areas to determine endpoint CMP process using indicator areas to determine endpoint

1998-08-18

1999-10-26

Bowers, Charles

Semiconductor device manufacturing: process

Coating with electrically or thermally conductive material

To form ohmic contact to semiconductive material

438692, 438691, 438759, 216 88, 216 84, 156345, H01L 214763, H01L 21302, H01L 2131

Patent

active

059727870

ABSTRACT:
The method of polishing metal layers on wafers comprises the steps of: providing indicator areas on said wafer, said indicator areas having combinations of line widths and pattern factors violating existing ground rules of metal lines thereby said indicator areas being dished out during said polishing using a chemical-mechanical polisher to polish the metal layers to remove material therefrom, inspecting indicator areas on the wafer to determine an amount of material removed from said areas, and adjusting the operation of the chemical-mechanical polisher in response to the inspection of the indicator areas. The indicator areas may include macroblocks comprised of a multitude of individual blocks. The wafer may be inspected by optically identifying the polishing state of to blocks in the macroblock. Additionally, the process may be automated for mass production. A feedback loop to the polisher can be formed where data from optical inspection of macroblocks on a polished wafer can be immediately fed back to the polisher in order to adjust process parameters.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4789648 (1988-12-01), Chow et al.
patent: 4910155 (1990-03-01), Cote et al.
patent: 5234868 (1993-08-01), Cote
patent: 5433651 (1995-07-01), Lustig et al.
patent: 5552996 (1996-09-01), Hoffman et al.
patent: 5639697 (1997-06-01), Weling et al.
patent: 5660672 (1997-08-01), Li et al.
patent: 5663637 (1997-09-01), Li et al.
patent: 5663797 (1997-09-01), Sandhu
patent: 5672091 (1997-09-01), Takahashi et al.
patent: 5677231 (1997-10-01), Maniar et al.
patent: 5736462 (1998-04-01), Takahashi et al.
patent: 5846882 (1998-12-01), Birang

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

CMP process using indicator areas to determine endpoint does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with CMP process using indicator areas to determine endpoint, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and CMP process using indicator areas to determine endpoint will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-763659