Feedback control of a chemical mechanical polishing device providing manipulation of removal rate profiles

• Main Authors: PRABHU GOPALAKRISHNA B, SCHWARM ALEXANDER T, SHANMUGASUNDRAM ARULKUMAR P
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 08.04.2014
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; CONTROLLING; COUNTING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; GRINDING; MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS ORELEMENTS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; POLISHING; REGULATING; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; TRANSPORTING

A method of controlling surface non-uniformity of a wafer in a polishing operation includes (a) providing a model for a wafer polishing that defines a plurality of regions on a wafer and identifies a wafer material removal rate in a polishing step of a polishing process for each of the regions, wherein the polishing process comprises a plurality of polishing steps, (b) polishing a wafer using a first polishing recipe based upon an incoming wafer thickness profile, (c) determining a wafer thickness profile for the post-polished wafer of step (b), and (d) calculating an updated polishing recipe based upon the wafer thickness profile of step (c) and the model of step (a) to maintain a target wafer thickness profile. The model can information about the tool state to improve the model quality. The method can be used to provide feedback to a plurality of platen stations.