17885809. APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING CHEMICAL MECHANICAL POLISHING simplified abstract (TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.)
Contents
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING CHEMICAL MECHANICAL POLISHING
Organization Name
TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
Inventor(s)
Jung-Chih Tsao of Hsinchu (TW)
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING CHEMICAL MECHANICAL POLISHING - A simplified explanation of the abstract
This abstract first appeared for US patent application 17885809 titled 'APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING CHEMICAL MECHANICAL POLISHING
Simplified Explanation
The patent application describes an apparatus for monitoring a Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process on a wafer using vibration sensors.
- Vibration sensors collect vibration data during the CMP process and transmit electric signals.
- A signal processor converts the electric signals into digital signals in the frequency domain.
- Filters are used to remove noise signals from the digital signals, resulting in noise reduced digital signals.
- The signal processor analyzes the noise reduced digital signals to obtain one or more frequency spectrums.
- The occurrence of micro-scratches on the wafer is determined by analyzing the frequency spectrums.
- The vibration sensors are in rigid contact with tools such as a head holding a carrier of the wafer or a platen holding a polishing pad.
- Each vibration sensor includes sub-frequency-ranges corresponding to materials being polished by the polishing pad.
- Potential Applications
- Semiconductor manufacturing - Quality control in wafer processing
- Problems Solved
- Monitoring and detecting micro-scratches during the CMP process - Improving the quality and yield of wafers
- Benefits
- Early detection of micro-scratches - Enhanced process control - Increased efficiency in wafer manufacturing
Original Abstract Submitted
An apparatus for monitoring a CMP process on a wafer includes vibration sensors to collect vibration data corresponding to the CMP process and to transmit electric signals, a signal processor to obtain digital signals by converting the electric signals into a frequency domain, and filters to filter out noise signals from the digital signals to obtain noise reduced digital signals. The signal processor obtains one or more frequency spectrums from the noise reduced digital signals, and determines a micro-scratch occurrence on the wafer by analyzing the obtained one or more frequency spectrums. The vibration sensors are in rigid contact with at least a tool such as a head holding a carrier of the wafer or a platen holding a polishing pad. Each vibration sensor includes at least two sub-frequency-ranges respectively corresponding to at least two materials to be polished by the polishing pad.
