Patent · US Expired

Method for integration optimization by chemical mechanical planarization end-pointing technique

US6432728B1 · kind B1 · utility

33Cited by
5References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 16, 2000
Grant dateAug 13, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 16, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01L21/31053
  • WIPO fieldMachine tools
  • WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

A new method is provided for determining the optimum film thickness of a film that is to be deposited over a semiconductor surface. The invention observes the electrical current and the therefrom resulting torque that is supplied to a rotating part of a polishing apparatus, from this the CMP end-point can be determined for a reference film that has been deposited. This technique is known as the “CMP end-point detection” technique. The invention addresses observing CMP end-point curves for films of various thicknesses and compares these CMP end-point curves of one film thickness with each other and calculates a deviation for multiple layers (deposited on different wafers) of that film thickness. The process is repeated for different film thickness. The film thickness that has a deviation of the CMP end-point curve that closest resembles an optimum deviation is the film thickness that is selected as having the optimum thickness for the deposition of that film.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.