US Patent Application 17735674. POLISHING HEAD WITH LOCAL INNER RING DOWNFORCE CONTROL simplified abstract

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POLISHING HEAD WITH LOCAL INNER RING DOWNFORCE CONTROL

Organization Name

Applied Materials, Inc.


Inventor(s)

Jeonghoon Oh of Saratoga CA (US)

Brian J. Brown of Palo Alto CA (US)

Huanbo Zhang of San Jose CA (US)

Andrew Nagengast of Sunnyvale CA (US)

Steven M. Zuniga of Soquel CA (US)

Ekaterina A. Mikhaylichenko of San Jose CA (US)

Eric L. Lau of Santa Clara CA (US)

Jay Gurusamy of Santa Clara CA (US)

David J. Lischka of Austin TX (US)

POLISHING HEAD WITH LOCAL INNER RING DOWNFORCE CONTROL - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 17735674 titled 'POLISHING HEAD WITH LOCAL INNER RING DOWNFORCE CONTROL

Simplified Explanation

- The abstract describes a patent application for carrier heads used in a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus. - The carrier heads have a carrier body and a substrate mounting surface. - They also have an inner ring that surrounds the edge of a substrate placed on the mounting surface. - The inner ring has a first surface facing the carrier body and a second surface on the opposite side. - The carrier heads have at least one downforce control actuator positioned above the first surface of the inner ring. - The actuator is located at a specific position around the inner ring's circumference. - The purpose of the invention is to provide improved control over the downforce applied to the substrate during the polishing process.


Original Abstract Submitted

Exemplary carrier heads for a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus may include a carrier body. The carrier heads may include a substrate mounting surface coupled with the carrier body. The carrier heads may include an inner ring that is sized and shaped to circumferentially surround a peripheral edge of a substrate positioned against the substrate mounting surface. The inner ring may be characterized by a first surface that faces the carrier body and a second surface opposite the first surface. The carrier heads may include at least one downforce control actuator disposed above the first surface of the inner ring at a discrete position about a circumference of the inner ring.