Kinematic analysis of in situ measurement during chemical mechanical planarization process

• Published in: Review of scientific instruments Vol. 86; no. 10; p. 105118
• Main Authors: Li, Hongkai, Wang, Tongqing, Zhao, Qian, Meng, Yonggang, Lu, Xinchun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Institute of Physics 01.10.2015
• Subjects: Chemical-mechanical polishing; CONTROL SYSTEMS; In situ measurement; INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; Kinematics; MANUFACTURING; Mathematical models; Organic chemistry; PROBES; PRODUCTIVITY; Scientific apparatus & instruments; SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS; SURFACES; TRAJECTORIES; Trajectory measurement; VELOCITY
• ISSN: 0034-6748; 1089-7623
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4934366

Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) is the most widely used planarization technique in semiconductor manufacturing presently. With the aid of in situ measurement technology, CMP tools can achieve good performance and stable productivity. However, the in situ measurement has remained unexplored from a kinematic standpoint. The available related resources for the kinematic analysis are very limited due to the complexity and technical secret. In this paper, a comprehensive kinematic analysis of in situ measurement is provided, including the analysis model, the measurement trajectory, and the measurement time of each zone of wafer surface during the practical CMP process. In addition, a lot of numerical calculations are performed to study the influences of main parameters on the measurement trajectory and the measurement velocity variation of the probe during the measurement process. All the efforts are expected to improve the in situ measurement system and promote the advancement in CMP control system.