Semiconductor substrate conditioning head having a plurality of geometries formed in a surface thereof for pad conditioning during chemical-mechanical polish

• US 5,536,202 A
• Filed: 07/27/1994
• Issued: 07/16/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Appel, Andrew T., Chisholm, Michael F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kisliuk, Bruce M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BANKS, DERRIS HOLT
• Application Number:
  US08/281,391
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• Field of Search: 451/285, 451/287, 451/398, 451/36, 451/56, 451/446, 451/550
• US Class Current: 451/285
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 53/017 Devices or means for dressing, cleaning or otherwise conditioning lapping tools

Abstract

A pad conditioning method and apparatus for chemical-mechanical polishing. A polishing pad (114) is attached to a platen (112) and used to polish a wafer (116). Rotating arm (118) positions the wafer (116) over the pad (114) and applies pressure. During wafer polishing particles build up on the polishing pad (114) reducing its effectiveness. Either during or in between wafer polishing (or both), conditioning head (122) is applied to pad (114) to remove the particles from pad (114) into the slurry (120). Conditioning head (122) comprises a semiconductor substrate (126) that is patterned and etched to form a plurality of geometries (128) having a feature size on the order of polishing pad (114) cell size.

Claims

1. A Chemical-Mechanical Polishing machine comprising:

a. a polishing pad;

b. a conditioning head comprising a semiconductor substrate having a non-planar semiconductor surface; and

c. a conditioning head arm for positioning said conditioning head over a surface of said polishing pad.

2. The machine of claim 1, wherein said non-planar surface is shaped into a plurality of evenly distributed geometries.

3. The machine of claim 2, wherein said plurality of geometries each has a size on the order of a cell size of said polishing pad.

4. The machine of claim 2, wherein said plurality of geometries each has a size on the order of 30 μ

m.

5. The machine of claim 2, wherein each of said plurality of geometries comprises slanted sidewall edges such that the slanted sidewall edges of two adjacent geometries form a V-shaped groove.

6. The machine of claim 2, wherein said plurality of geometries are each straight-walled geometries.

7. The machine of claim 2, wherein each of said plurality of geometries comprises curved sidewall edges.

8. The machine of claim 1, wherein said semiconductor substrate comprises a material selected from the group consisting of amorphous, crystalline, or polycrystalline silicon.

9. The machine of claim 1, wherein said semiconductor substrate comprises silicon carbide.

10. The machine of claim 1, further comprising a hardening film located over said non-planar surface.

11. The machine of claim 10, wherein said hardening film comprises silicon carbide.

12. The machine of claim 10, wherein said hardening film comprises a diamond film.

13. A chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) machine comprising:

a polishing pad comprising a plurality of cells; and

a conditioning head comprising a semiconductor substrate having a non-planar semiconductor surface, wherein said non-planar semiconductor surface is shaped into a plurality of geometries, each of said plurality of geometries having a width on an order of magnitude of a width of one of said cells.

14. The CMP machine of claim 13, wherein said plurality of geometries are evenly distributed in said surface of said semiconductor substrate.

15. The CMP machine of claim 13, wherein each of said plurality of geometries comprises slanted sidewalls.

16. The CMP machine of claim 13, wherein each of said plurality of geometries comprises straight sidewalls.

17. The CMP machine of claim 13, wherein each of said plurality of geometries comprises curved sidewalls.

18. The CMP machine of claim 13, further comprising a hardening film located over said plurality of geometries.

19. The CMP machine of claim 18 wherein said hardening film comprises silicon carbide.

20. The CMP machine of claim 18 wherein said hardening film comprises a diamond film.