Patent · US Expired

Polishing system with in-line and in-situ metrology

US7101251B2 · kind B2 · utility

9Cited by
69References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 23, 2005
Grant dateSep 5, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 23, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01L22/26
  • WIPO fieldMachine tools
  • WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

A computer program product for process control in chemical mechanical polishing is described. The product includes instructions to cause a processor to receive a measurement of an initial pre-polishing thickness of a layer of a substrate from a metrology station, determine a value for a parameter of an endpoint algorithm from the initial thickness of the substrate, receive a monitoring signal generated from monitoring in-situ polishing of the substrate, process the monitoring signal to detect a signal feature indicating a final or intermediate endpoint and send instructions to stop polishing when an endpoint criterion is detected using the endpoint algorithm with the determined value for the parameter.

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