US20020022440A1 - Supply of controlled amount of polishing slurry to semiconductor wafers - Google Patents
Supply of controlled amount of polishing slurry to semiconductor wafers Download PDFInfo
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- US20020022440A1 US20020022440A1 US09/825,174 US82517401A US2002022440A1 US 20020022440 A1 US20020022440 A1 US 20020022440A1 US 82517401 A US82517401 A US 82517401A US 2002022440 A1 US2002022440 A1 US 2002022440A1
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- Prior art keywords
- slurry
- polishing
- semiconductor wafer
- supply
- polishing pad
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- 238000005498 polishing Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 97
- 239000002002 slurry Substances 0.000 title claims abstract description 65
- 239000004065 semiconductor Substances 0.000 title claims abstract description 44
- 235000012431 wafers Nutrition 0.000 title abstract 4
- 230000007246 mechanism Effects 0.000 claims abstract description 30
- 238000003825 pressing Methods 0.000 claims description 3
- 238000007517 polishing process Methods 0.000 claims description 2
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 description 9
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 description 3
- 239000007921 spray Substances 0.000 description 3
- 230000008859 change Effects 0.000 description 2
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 description 2
- WFKWXMTUELFFGS-UHFFFAOYSA-N tungsten Chemical compound [W] WFKWXMTUELFFGS-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- 229910052721 tungsten Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 239000010937 tungsten Substances 0.000 description 2
- 229920005830 Polyurethane Foam Polymers 0.000 description 1
- 238000006243 chemical reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000013461 design Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000009826 distribution Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000011156 evaluation Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000012530 fluid Substances 0.000 description 1
- 239000011229 interlayer Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000012544 monitoring process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000011496 polyurethane foam Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000005086 pumping Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000009467 reduction Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000126 substance Substances 0.000 description 1
- 239000000758 substrate Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000012546 transfer Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000002699 waste material Substances 0.000 description 1
Images
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/02—Manufacture or treatment of semiconductor devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/04—Manufacture or treatment of semiconductor devices or of parts thereof the devices having potential barriers, e.g. a PN junction, depletion layer or carrier concentration layer
- H01L21/18—Manufacture or treatment of semiconductor devices or of parts thereof the devices having potential barriers, e.g. a PN junction, depletion layer or carrier concentration layer the devices having semiconductor bodies comprising elements of Group IV of the Periodic Table or AIIIBV compounds with or without impurities, e.g. doping materials
- H01L21/30—Treatment of semiconductor bodies using processes or apparatus not provided for in groups H01L21/20 - H01L21/26
- H01L21/302—Treatment of semiconductor bodies using processes or apparatus not provided for in groups H01L21/20 - H01L21/26 to change their surface-physical characteristics or shape, e.g. etching, polishing, cutting
- H01L21/304—Mechanical treatment, e.g. grinding, polishing, cutting
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
- B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
- B24B37/00—Lapping machines or devices; Accessories
- B24B37/04—Lapping machines or devices; Accessories designed for working plane surfaces
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
- B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
- B24B57/00—Devices for feeding, applying, grading or recovering grinding, polishing or lapping agents
- B24B57/02—Devices for feeding, applying, grading or recovering grinding, polishing or lapping agents for feeding of fluid, sprayed, pulverised, or liquefied grinding, polishing or lapping agents
Definitions
- the present invention relates generally to a method of polishing a semiconductor wafer to flatten the surface thereof and to an apparatus for carrying out the polishing method.
- Processes for manufacturing an integrated circuit substrate of a semiconductor device typically include a process for flattening an inter layer insulating film, a wiring film and the like.
- a process for flattening an inter layer insulating film, a wiring film and the like In the flattening process, a particular technique generally referred to as a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is adopted.
- CMP chemical mechanical polishing
- Polishing of the semiconductor wafer according to the CMP is performed in the following monmer. First, a polishing pad made of polyurethane foam is affixed to a rigid polishing platen, and a semiconductor wafer to be polished is held in position with a holding head. Then, the semiconductor wafer is pressed against the polishing pad and is rotated in one direction. At this stage, polishing slurry is supplied from a slurry-supply nozzle in a dropping manner to the surface of the polishing pad to polish the surface of the semiconductor wafer.
- polishing slurry is supplied from one single slurry-supply nozzle to be dropped onto a radially central region of the polishing pad, the slurry cannot be spread over the entire surface of the semiconductor, so that the surface of the semiconductor cannot be uniformly and evenly polished. Further, in order to uniformly spread the polishing slurry over the entire surface of the semiconductor, an excessive amount of polishing slurry may be supplied. This, however, results in the increased consumption of the polishing slurry which is undesirable in terms of cost.
- the polishing apparatus is provided with a spray means having a plurality of openings, which are arranged side by side in a radial direction of a polishing pad.
- the polishing slurry in the condition of spray or splash is blown against the radially entire portion of the polishing pad through the plurality of openings of the spray means, so that the polishing slurry comes into and is then squeezed out of finely small holes in the polishing pad.
- the semiconductor wafer is then polished at a reduced speed to obtain a uniformly polished surface of the semiconductor wafer.
- the polishing slurry may be uniformly and evenly supplied to the surface of the polishing pad, the time of contact of a radially central region of the semiconductor wafer with the polishing pad is obviously different from that of a radially outermost region of the semiconductor wafer with the polishing pad. Accordingly, a problem is encountered with the known polishing apparatus that even if the polishing slurry is evenly supplied to the semiconductor wafer, it is difficult to obtain a uinform amount of polishing over the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer.
- an apparatus for polishing a semiconductor wafer comprises at least one slurry-supply mechanism for supplying a controlled amount of polishing slurry to both an intermediate position located between an outer end region and a central region of a semiconductor wafer, and the central region per se.
- Arranging one or more slurry-nozzles in a radial direction of a polishing pad, and control of an amount of polishing slurry supplied to the polishing pad that confronts the surface of the semiconductor wafer permit a uniform polishing of the inside of the surface of the wafer.
- a pattern or patterns can be transferred to the polished semiconductor wafer with a high resolution.
- the slurry-supply mechanism comprises a pair of first slurry-supply nozzles arranged side by side in a radial direction of the polishing pad and confronting the intermediate position between the outer end region and the central region of the semiconductor wafer, a second slurry-supply nozzle arranged between the pair of first slurry-supply nozzles and confronting the central region of the semiconductor wafer, and a flow amount varying means for independently supplying the controlled amount of polishing slurry to the pair of first slurry-supply nozzles and the second slurry-supply nozzle.
- FIG. 1A is a top plan view of a polishing apparatus for a semiconductor wafer according to an embodiment of the present invention
- FIG. 1B is a side view of the apparatus of FIG. 1A;
- FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating a relationship between a position in a semiconductor wafer surface and an amount of polish obtained when the semiconductor is polished with the dropping amount of the polishing slurry from slurry-supply nozzles being varied;
- FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a first variant of the slurry-supply mechanism shown in FIG. 1;
- FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating another variant of the slurry-supply mechanism of FIG. 3;
- FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating another variant of the slurry-supply mechanism of FIG. 1;
- FIG. 6 is a schematic view illustrating another variant of the slurry-supply mechanism of FIG. 5.
- FIGS. 1A and 1B there is shown a polishing apparatus which comprises polishing pad 2 attached to turnable platen 5 , wafer holding head 3 which holds semiconductor wafer 21 and rotates in a direction shown by an arrow while pressing the wafer 21 against the surface of polishing pad 2 under a given pressure, slurry-supply mechanism 1 which controls an amount of flow of polishing slurry to be supplied to an intermediate region between a central region and an outer end region of the wafer 21 and to the central region per se, respectively.
- Slurry-supply mechanism 1 comprises a pair of slurry-supply nozzles 4 a disposed side by side on sleeve pipe 6 at positions confronting the intermediate region between the central region and the outer end region of wafer 21 , sleeve 6 being held above polishing pad 2 and extending in a radial direction of polishing pad 2 .
- Slurry-supply mechanism 1 further comprises another nozzle slurry-supply for 4 b between a pair of slurry nozzles 4 a on sleeve pipe 6 at a position confronting the central region of wafer 21 , pumps 7 for individually supplying pair of slurry-supply nozzles 4 a and slurry-supply nozzle 4 b with the polishing slurry, and slurry-supply sources 8 for supplying respective pumps 7 with the polishing slurry under pressure.
- the amounts of the polishing slurry i.e., the amount of flow of the polishing slurry dropped from these three nozzles 4 a and 4 b are determined by the numbers of rotations of respective pumps 7 .
- flow control valves may be provided in respectives three fluid supply tubes introduced in the sleeve pipe 6 .
- the openings of the three flow control valves may be choked or plugged with the polishing slurry it is desirable to control the flow of polishing slurry the number of rotation of the pumps 7 .
- FIG. 2 is a graphical representation of distribution of the polished amount of wafer surface when wafer 21 is polished while changing the amount of polishing slurry dropped from slurry nozzles 4 a and 4 b.
- polishing of a tungsten film of the wafer was conducted under the two different conditions. That is to say, in the first condition, the amount of polishing slurry supplied to the central region of the wafer was selected to be at the maximum as in the prior art, namely, in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the amount of polishing slurry dropped from the slurry nozzle 4 b was larger than that from the slurry nozzles 4 a and in the second condition, the amount of polishing slurry dropped from the slurry nozzles 4 a confronting the intermediate region of the wafer was selected to be larger than that from the slurry nozzle 4 b confronting the central region of the wafer. As a result, as seen from FIG.
- the amount of polishing shown in FIG. 2 is an indication on a display, which was obtained, through conversion by a personal computer, from a thickness of the polished tungsten film of wafer measured by the four-terminal resistance measuring method that measures series resistances at respective portions of the wafer. This method is very simple and can be used to conduct evaluations as set forth below by monitoring the display indication.
- FIG. 3 illustrates a first variant of the slurry-supply mechanism.
- the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant is constructed by taking into consideration the fact that when, for example, the quality of film of a wafer is easy to be polished or a pattern density transferred onto a wafer is low, a single slurry nozzle is sufficient for achieving the desired polishing of the wafer.
- single slurry nozzle 4 c is attached to block 9 , which is guided by guide bar 11 , such that the slurry nozzle can be fixedly positioned at any position in a radial direction of polishing pad 2 .
- Flexible tube 13 connected to nozzle 4 c via block 9 is spirally loosely wound around guide bar 11 held by bracket 10 so that block 9 is allowed to move in the radial direction along guide bar 11 .
- slurry nozzle 4 c is adequately positioned to obtain a uniform finish of polishing, and subsequently block 9 is fixed to guide bar 11 with screw 12 .
- polishing slurry 22 is dropped onto the surface of polishing pad 2 .
- FIG. 4 is another variant of the slurry-supply mechanism shown in FIG. 3.
- the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant includes a shifting and positioning mechanism having a block 9 mounting thereon nozzle 4 c and accommodating therein a nut, for permitting slurry nozzle 4 c to change its position in the radial direction of polishing pad 2 even during polishing operation, a feed screw 14 being in engagement with the nut of block 9 , and pulse motor 15 for rotating the feed screw 14 .
- FIG. 5 illustrates a second variant of the slurry-supply mechanism.
- the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant has two slurry nozzles 4 c and 4 d, which are able to appropriately and arbitrarily change their respective positions on guide bar 11 .
- Block 9 a on which slurry nozzle 4 c is mounted and block 9 b on which slurry nozzle 4 d is mounted are able to slide on common guide bar 11 , and are fixed thereto with lock screws 12 .
- FIG. 6 illustrates a variant of the slurry-supply mechanism of FIG. 5.
- the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant has two slurry nozzles 4 c and 4 d, which are positioned at any position on guide bar 11 during the polishing operation.
- the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant includes a shifting and positioning mechanism having block 9 c mounting thereon slurry nozzle 4 c and accommodating therein a nut, block 9 d mounting thereon slurry nozzle 4 d and accommodating therein a nut, two feed screws 14 being in engagement with the two nuts, respectively, and pulse motors 15 a and 15 b which are able to independently drive the rotational motion of respective feed screws 14 .
- the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant can always polish inside a wafer surface uniformly by adequately combining a positioning program of two slurry nozzles 4 c and 4 d with a pumping out program of a slurry pump, with respect to a variety of polishing modes.
- the guide bar may be provided for each block.
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- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
- Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
- Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
- Power Engineering (AREA)
- Finish Polishing, Edge Sharpening, And Grinding By Specific Grinding Devices (AREA)
- Mechanical Treatment Of Semiconductor (AREA)
Abstract
An apparatus is disclosed wherein polishing slurry is supplied to a polishing pad affixed to a polishing platen to thereby polish semiconductor wafers. This apparatus is provided with at least one slurry-supply mechanism for supplying a controlled amount of polishing slurry to an intermediate region between outer end and central regions of a semiconductor wafer and to the central region per se. Control is made such that the amount of flow of polishing slurry supplied to the intermediate region of the semiconductor wafer is larger than that supplied to the central region thereof.
Description
- 1. Field of the Invention
- The present invention relates generally to a method of polishing a semiconductor wafer to flatten the surface thereof and to an apparatus for carrying out the polishing method.
- 2. Description of the Related Art
- Processes for manufacturing an integrated circuit substrate of a semiconductor device typically include a process for flattening an inter layer insulating film, a wiring film and the like. In the flattening process, a particular technique generally referred to as a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is adopted.
- With a reduction in the design rule of semiconductor integrated circuits, respective circuit patterns must be minute, so that each kind of aligners is required to have a high resolution. However, an increase in the resolution of the aligner causes the depth of focus thereof to be made smaller. For this reason, in order to transfer the circuit patterns onto a semiconductor wafer at a high resolution, the surface of the semiconductor wafer needs to be finely flat to have no irregularity thereon.
- Polishing of the semiconductor wafer according to the CMP is performed in the following monmer. First, a polishing pad made of polyurethane foam is affixed to a rigid polishing platen, and a semiconductor wafer to be polished is held in position with a holding head. Then, the semiconductor wafer is pressed against the polishing pad and is rotated in one direction. At this stage, polishing slurry is supplied from a slurry-supply nozzle in a dropping manner to the surface of the polishing pad to polish the surface of the semiconductor wafer.
- However, with this method, although the polishing slurry is supplied from one single slurry-supply nozzle to be dropped onto a radially central region of the polishing pad, the slurry cannot be spread over the entire surface of the semiconductor, so that the surface of the semiconductor cannot be uniformly and evenly polished. Further, in order to uniformly spread the polishing slurry over the entire surface of the semiconductor, an excessive amount of polishing slurry may be supplied. This, however, results in the increased consumption of the polishing slurry which is undesirable in terms of cost.
- One typical polishing apparatus to solve the problem is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 70465/99. The polishing apparatus is provided with a spray means having a plurality of openings, which are arranged side by side in a radial direction of a polishing pad. The polishing slurry in the condition of spray or splash is blown against the radially entire portion of the polishing pad through the plurality of openings of the spray means, so that the polishing slurry comes into and is then squeezed out of finely small holes in the polishing pad. The semiconductor wafer is then polished at a reduced speed to obtain a uniformly polished surface of the semiconductor wafer.
- In the aforementioned polishing apparatus, although the polishing slurry may be uniformly and evenly supplied to the surface of the polishing pad, the time of contact of a radially central region of the semiconductor wafer with the polishing pad is obviously different from that of a radially outermost region of the semiconductor wafer with the polishing pad. Accordingly, a problem is encountered with the known polishing apparatus that even if the polishing slurry is evenly supplied to the semiconductor wafer, it is difficult to obtain a uinform amount of polishing over the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer.
- Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of and an apparatus for uniformly polishing inside the surface of a semiconductor wafer with reduced consumption of polishing slurry.
- To achieve the above object, an apparatus for polishing a semiconductor wafer, according to the present invention comprises at least one slurry-supply mechanism for supplying a controlled amount of polishing slurry to both an intermediate position located between an outer end region and a central region of a semiconductor wafer, and the central region per se.
- Arranging one or more slurry-nozzles in a radial direction of a polishing pad, and control of an amount of polishing slurry supplied to the polishing pad that confronts the surface of the semiconductor wafer permit a uniform polishing of the inside of the surface of the wafer. Thus, a pattern or patterns can be transferred to the polished semiconductor wafer with a high resolution.
- Furthermore, since there is no necessity of supplying an excess amount of polishing slurry with a fixedly arranged single slurry nozzle, and since polishing of the surface of the semiconductor is conducted according to the position and the number of the slurry nozzles as well as control of an amount of flow of polishing slurry, waste of the polishing slurry can be prevented, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost of the semiconductor wafer.
- According to one embodiment of the present invention, the slurry-supply mechanism comprises a pair of first slurry-supply nozzles arranged side by side in a radial direction of the polishing pad and confronting the intermediate position between the outer end region and the central region of the semiconductor wafer, a second slurry-supply nozzle arranged between the pair of first slurry-supply nozzles and confronting the central region of the semiconductor wafer, and a flow amount varying means for independently supplying the controlled amount of polishing slurry to the pair of first slurry-supply nozzles and the second slurry-supply nozzle.
- The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate examples of the present invention.
- FIG. 1A is a top plan view of a polishing apparatus for a semiconductor wafer according to an embodiment of the present invention;
- FIG. 1B is a side view of the apparatus of FIG. 1A;
- FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating a relationship between a position in a semiconductor wafer surface and an amount of polish obtained when the semiconductor is polished with the dropping amount of the polishing slurry from slurry-supply nozzles being varied;
- FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a first variant of the slurry-supply mechanism shown in FIG. 1;
- FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating another variant of the slurry-supply mechanism of FIG. 3;
- FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating another variant of the slurry-supply mechanism of FIG. 1; and
- FIG. 6 is a schematic view illustrating another variant of the slurry-supply mechanism of FIG. 5.
- Referring now to FIGS. 1A and 1B, there is shown a polishing apparatus which comprises
polishing pad 2 attached toturnable platen 5,wafer holding head 3 which holdssemiconductor wafer 21 and rotates in a direction shown by an arrow while pressing thewafer 21 against the surface ofpolishing pad 2 under a given pressure, slurry-supply mechanism 1 which controls an amount of flow of polishing slurry to be supplied to an intermediate region between a central region and an outer end region of thewafer 21 and to the central region per se, respectively. - Slurry-
supply mechanism 1 comprises a pair of slurry-supply nozzles 4 a disposed side by side on sleeve pipe 6 at positions confronting the intermediate region between the central region and the outer end region ofwafer 21, sleeve 6 being held abovepolishing pad 2 and extending in a radial direction ofpolishing pad 2. Slurry-supply mechanism 1 further comprises another nozzle slurry-supply for 4 b between a pair of slurry nozzles 4 a on sleeve pipe 6 at a position confronting the central region ofwafer 21,pumps 7 for individually supplying pair of slurry-supply nozzles 4 a and slurry-supply nozzle 4 b with the polishing slurry, and slurry-supply sources 8 for supplyingrespective pumps 7 with the polishing slurry under pressure. - The amounts of the polishing slurry, i.e., the amount of flow of the polishing slurry dropped from these three nozzles4 a and 4 b are determined by the numbers of rotations of
respective pumps 7. Instead of controlling the number of rotations ofpumps 7, flow control valves may be provided in respectives three fluid supply tubes introduced in the sleeve pipe 6. However, since the openings of the three flow control valves may be choked or plugged with the polishing slurry it is desirable to control the flow of polishing slurry the number of rotation of thepumps 7. - FIG. 2 is a graphical representation of distribution of the polished amount of wafer surface when
wafer 21 is polished while changing the amount of polishing slurry dropped from slurry nozzles 4 a and 4 b. - More specifically, polishing of a tungsten film of the wafer was conducted under the two different conditions. That is to say, in the first condition, the amount of polishing slurry supplied to the central region of the wafer was selected to be at the maximum as in the prior art, namely, in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the amount of polishing slurry dropped from the slurry nozzle4 b was larger than that from the slurry nozzles 4 a and in the second condition, the amount of polishing slurry dropped from the slurry nozzles 4 a confronting the intermediate region of the wafer was selected to be larger than that from the slurry nozzle 4 b confronting the central region of the wafer. As a result, as seen from FIG. 2, when a larger amount of polishing slurry is dropped onto the center of wafer (at 200 mm position in wafer surface), as indicated by a curve of white circles, a difference between the polished amount at the central region of the wafer and that at the outer end region of the wafer is appreciably larger. On the other hand, when a larger amount of polishing slurry is dropped onto the intermediate region of the wafer between the central and outer end regions of the wafer, as indicated by a curve of black circles, a difference between the polished amounts at the two regions of wafer is rather small.
- It is to be noted that the amount of polishing shown in FIG. 2 is an indication on a display, which was obtained, through conversion by a personal computer, from a thickness of the polished tungsten film of wafer measured by the four-terminal resistance measuring method that measures series resistances at respective portions of the wafer. This method is very simple and can be used to conduct evaluations as set forth below by monitoring the display indication.
- FIG. 3 illustrates a first variant of the slurry-supply mechanism. The slurry-supply mechanism of this variant is constructed by taking into consideration the fact that when, for example, the quality of film of a wafer is easy to be polished or a pattern density transferred onto a wafer is low, a single slurry nozzle is sufficient for achieving the desired polishing of the wafer. As shown in FIG. 3, single slurry nozzle4 c is attached to
block 9, which is guided byguide bar 11, such that the slurry nozzle can be fixedly positioned at any position in a radial direction ofpolishing pad 2.Flexible tube 13 connected to nozzle 4 c viablock 9 is spirally loosely wound aroundguide bar 11 held bybracket 10 so thatblock 9 is allowed to move in the radial direction alongguide bar 11. Upon conducting polishing operation, slurry nozzle 4 c is adequately positioned to obtain a uniform finish of polishing, and subsequentlyblock 9 is fixed to guidebar 11 with screw 12. When the polishing operation is started, polishingslurry 22 is dropped onto the surface ofpolishing pad 2. - FIG. 4 is another variant of the slurry-supply mechanism shown in FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 4, the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant includes a shifting and positioning mechanism having a
block 9 mounting thereon nozzle 4 c and accommodating therein a nut, for permitting slurry nozzle 4 c to change its position in the radial direction of polishingpad 2 even during polishing operation, afeed screw 14 being in engagement with the nut ofblock 9, andpulse motor 15 for rotating thefeed screw 14. - FIG. 5 illustrates a second variant of the slurry-supply mechanism. As shown in FIG. 5, the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant has two slurry nozzles4 c and 4 d, which are able to appropriately and arbitrarily change their respective positions on
guide bar 11. Block 9 a on which slurry nozzle 4 c is mounted and block 9 b on which slurry nozzle 4 d is mounted are able to slide oncommon guide bar 11, and are fixed thereto with lock screws 12. - FIG. 6 illustrates a variant of the slurry-supply mechanism of FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 6, the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant has two slurry nozzles4 c and 4 d, which are positioned at any position on
guide bar 11 during the polishing operation. The slurry-supply mechanism of this variant includes a shifting and positioning mechanism having block 9 c mounting thereon slurry nozzle 4 c and accommodating therein a nut, block 9 d mounting thereon slurry nozzle 4 d and accommodating therein a nut, twofeed screws 14 being in engagement with the two nuts, respectively, and pulse motors 15 a and 15 b which are able to independently drive the rotational motion of respective feed screws 14. - Further, the slurry-supply mechanism of this variant can always polish inside a wafer surface uniformly by adequately combining a positioning program of two slurry nozzles4 c and 4 d with a pumping out program of a slurry pump, with respect to a variety of polishing modes.
- In this variant, the guide bar may be provided for each block.
- Although the foregoing description has been made with reference to preferred embodiments having a single wafer holding head and a single slurry-supply mechanism, it should be appreciated that the present invention is applicable to an embodiment in which two wafer holding mechanisms and two slurry-supply mechanisms are provided.
- While preferred embodiment of the present invention have been described using specific terms, such description is for illustrative purposes only, and it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the following claims.
Claims (7)
1. A method of polishing a semiconductor wafer, comprising the steps of:
pressing said semiconductor wafer against a surface of a polishing pad affixed to a polishing platen that is rotating in one direction; and
supplying polishing slurry to the surface of said polishing pad in such a manner that the amount of flow of polishing slurry supplied to an intermediate region between central and outer end regions of said semiconductor wafer is larger than that supplied to said central region.
2. An apparatus for polishing a semiconductor wafer, comprising:
a polishing pad affixed to a polishing platen that rotatates in one direction;
at least one wafer holding head for holding a semiconductor wafer and for pressing said semiconductor wafer against a surface of said polishing pad while rotating in one direction; and
at least one slurry-supply mechanism for supplying polishing slurry to an intermediate region between outer end and central regions of said semiconductor wafer and said central region, respectively, while controlling the amount of flow of said polishing slurry in such a manner that the amount of flow of polishing slurry supplied to the former is larger than that supplied to the latter.
3. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said slurry-supply mechanism comprises:
a pair of first slurry-supply nozzles disposed side by side in a direction corresponding to a radial direction of said polishing pad and confronting said intermediate regions between the outer end and central regions of said semiconductor wafer;
a second slurry-supply nozzle disposed between first slurry supply nozzles and confronting said central region of said semiconductor wafer; and
a flow amount varying means for independently supplying the controlled amount of polishing slurry to said pair of first slurry-supply nozzles and said second slurry-supply nozzle.
4. The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein said flow amount varying means comprises a pump.
5. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said slurry-supply mechanism comprises:
a guide bar extending in a radial direction of said polishing pad;
one or blocks movably disposed on said guide bar;
one or two slurry-supply nozzles each mounted on an associated block; and
means for fixing said each block to said guide bar.
6. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said slurry-supply mechanism comprises:
a block mounting thereon a slurry-supply nozzle and accommodating therein a nut;
a feed screw being engagement with said nut and mounted on a bracket; and
a pulse motor for rotationally driving said feed screw.
7. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said slurry-supply mechanism comprises:
one or two guide bars each extending in a radial direction of said polishing pad;
one or two blocks guided by an associated guide bar and accommodating therein a nut;
one or two feed screws each being in engagement with the nut of an associated block;
one or two slurry nozzles each mounted on an associated block; and
one or two pulse motors each rotationally driving an associated feed screw.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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JP2000104579A JP2001287154A (en) | 2000-04-06 | 2000-04-06 | Polisher and polishing method |
JP2000-104579 | 2000-04-06 |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
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US20020022440A1 true US20020022440A1 (en) | 2002-02-21 |
Family
ID=18618096
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
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US09/825,174 Abandoned US20020022440A1 (en) | 2000-04-06 | 2001-04-03 | Supply of controlled amount of polishing slurry to semiconductor wafers |
Country Status (5)
Country | Link |
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US (1) | US20020022440A1 (en) |
JP (1) | JP2001287154A (en) |
KR (1) | KR20010098453A (en) |
CN (1) | CN1316768A (en) |
GB (1) | GB2363350A (en) |
Cited By (10)
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US6722943B2 (en) * | 2001-08-24 | 2004-04-20 | Micron Technology, Inc. | Planarizing machines and methods for dispensing planarizing solutions in the processing of microelectronic workpieces |
US20040162007A1 (en) * | 2003-02-19 | 2004-08-19 | Ky Phan | Chemical mechanical polishing atomizing rinse system |
US20040214508A1 (en) * | 2002-06-28 | 2004-10-28 | Lam Research Corporation | Apparatus and method for controlling film thickness in a chemical mechanical planarization system |
US6872128B1 (en) * | 2003-09-30 | 2005-03-29 | Lam Research Corporation | System, method and apparatus for applying liquid to a CMP polishing pad |
US20050079801A1 (en) * | 2003-10-08 | 2005-04-14 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | Methods for enhancing within-wafer CMP uniformity |
US20050170761A1 (en) * | 2003-02-11 | 2005-08-04 | Micron Technology, Inc. | Apparatuses and methods for conditioning polishing pads used in polishing micro-device workpieces |
US20050205207A1 (en) * | 2004-03-19 | 2005-09-22 | Gaku Minamihaba | Polishing apparatus and method for manufacturing semiconductor device |
US6953391B1 (en) * | 2002-03-30 | 2005-10-11 | Lam Research Corporation | Methods for reducing slurry usage in a linear chemical mechanical planarization system |
US20100285209A1 (en) * | 2005-06-10 | 2010-11-11 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Chemical solution application apparatus and chemical solution application method |
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JP5422245B2 (en) * | 2009-04-01 | 2014-02-19 | 株式会社荏原製作所 | Polishing apparatus and polishing method |
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JP3334139B2 (en) * | 1991-07-01 | 2002-10-15 | ソニー株式会社 | Polishing equipment |
US5554064A (en) * | 1993-08-06 | 1996-09-10 | Intel Corporation | Orbital motion chemical-mechanical polishing apparatus and method of fabrication |
JP3734289B2 (en) * | 1995-01-24 | 2006-01-11 | 株式会社荏原製作所 | Polishing device |
US6139406A (en) * | 1997-06-24 | 2000-10-31 | Applied Materials, Inc. | Combined slurry dispenser and rinse arm and method of operation |
US5816900A (en) * | 1997-07-17 | 1998-10-06 | Lsi Logic Corporation | Apparatus for polishing a substrate at radially varying polish rates |
KR100540367B1 (en) * | 1997-12-26 | 2006-01-10 | 가부시키가이샤 에바라 세이사꾸쇼 | Polishing device and polishing method |
US6429131B2 (en) * | 1999-03-18 | 2002-08-06 | Infineon Technologies Ag | CMP uniformity |
-
2000
- 2000-04-06 JP JP2000104579A patent/JP2001287154A/en active Pending
-
2001
- 2001-04-03 US US09/825,174 patent/US20020022440A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2001-04-04 KR KR1020010018052A patent/KR20010098453A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 2001-04-06 CN CN01110439A patent/CN1316768A/en active Pending
- 2001-04-06 GB GB0108751A patent/GB2363350A/en not_active Withdrawn
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US20040209548A1 (en) * | 2001-08-24 | 2004-10-21 | Joslyn Michael J. | Planarizing machines and methods for dispensing planarizing solutions in the processing of microelectronic workpieces |
US6953391B1 (en) * | 2002-03-30 | 2005-10-11 | Lam Research Corporation | Methods for reducing slurry usage in a linear chemical mechanical planarization system |
US20040214508A1 (en) * | 2002-06-28 | 2004-10-28 | Lam Research Corporation | Apparatus and method for controlling film thickness in a chemical mechanical planarization system |
US7997958B2 (en) | 2003-02-11 | 2011-08-16 | Micron Technology, Inc. | Apparatuses and methods for conditioning polishing pads used in polishing micro-device workpieces |
US20050170761A1 (en) * | 2003-02-11 | 2005-08-04 | Micron Technology, Inc. | Apparatuses and methods for conditioning polishing pads used in polishing micro-device workpieces |
US7708622B2 (en) | 2003-02-11 | 2010-05-04 | Micron Technology, Inc. | Apparatuses and methods for conditioning polishing pads used in polishing micro-device workpieces |
US20040162007A1 (en) * | 2003-02-19 | 2004-08-19 | Ky Phan | Chemical mechanical polishing atomizing rinse system |
US6872128B1 (en) * | 2003-09-30 | 2005-03-29 | Lam Research Corporation | System, method and apparatus for applying liquid to a CMP polishing pad |
US20050070212A1 (en) * | 2003-09-30 | 2005-03-31 | Lam Research Corporation | System, method and apparatus for applying liquid to a cmp polishing pad |
US20050079801A1 (en) * | 2003-10-08 | 2005-04-14 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | Methods for enhancing within-wafer CMP uniformity |
US6929533B2 (en) * | 2003-10-08 | 2005-08-16 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd | Methods for enhancing within-wafer CMP uniformity |
US20050205207A1 (en) * | 2004-03-19 | 2005-09-22 | Gaku Minamihaba | Polishing apparatus and method for manufacturing semiconductor device |
US20100285209A1 (en) * | 2005-06-10 | 2010-11-11 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Chemical solution application apparatus and chemical solution application method |
US8722135B2 (en) * | 2005-06-10 | 2014-05-13 | Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. | Method for discharging chemical solution |
US20160318149A1 (en) * | 2015-04-28 | 2016-11-03 | Samsung Display Co., Ltd. | Substrate polishing apparatus |
US9969047B2 (en) * | 2015-04-28 | 2018-05-15 | Samsung Display Co., Ltd. | Substrate polishing apparatus |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
GB2363350A (en) | 2001-12-19 |
JP2001287154A (en) | 2001-10-16 |
CN1316768A (en) | 2001-10-10 |
KR20010098453A (en) | 2001-11-08 |
GB0108751D0 (en) | 2001-05-30 |
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