公开(公告)号：US20220388112A1

公开(公告)日：2022-12-08

申请号：US17825839

申请日：2022-05-26

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Nojan Motamedi ,  Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek

IPC: B24B37/013 ,  G01B11/06 ,  H01L21/66

Abstract: Exemplary semiconductor processing systems may include a substrate support defining an aperture therethrough. The processing systems may include a light assembly having a light source that emits an optical signal that is directed toward the aperture. The optical signal may have a high angle of incidence relative to the substrate support. The processing systems may include a photodetector aligned with an angle of reflectance of the optical signal. A controller for the processing system may be programmed to receive an amount of the optical signal received by the photodetector and determine a thickness of the outermost layer of film. The controller may include a model trained to classify based on the optical signal. The output of the model may be used to control a process performed on the substrate.

公开(公告)号：US11315232B2

公开(公告)日：2022-04-26

申请号：US16659408

申请日：2019-10-21

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc

Inventor： Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Nojan Motamedi

IPC: G06T7/00 ,  G06T7/90 ,  G06T7/41

Abstract: A method of determining whether a substrate is properly polished includes obtaining an image of the substrate, obtaining intensity values of a luminance plane for the image, generating an intensity histogram from the intensity values of the luminance plane, and analyzing the intensity histogram to determine whether the intensity histogram meets one or more criteria.

公开(公告)号：US20220077006A1

公开(公告)日：2022-03-10

申请号：US17530390

申请日：2021-11-18

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Jeffrey Drue David ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek

IPC: H01L21/66 ,  B24B37/013 ,  B24B37/20 ,  B24B49/08 ,  B24B49/12 ,  B24D7/14 ,  H01L21/3105 ,  H01L21/321 ,  H01L21/306 ,  H01L21/67

Abstract: A method of detecting a polishing endpoint includes storing a plurality of library spectra, measuring a sequence of spectra from the substrate in-situ during polishing, and for each measured spectrum of the sequence of spectra, finding a best matching library spectrum from the plurality of library spectra to generate a sequence of best matching library spectra. Each library spectrum has a stored associated value representing a degree of progress through a polishing process, and the stored associated value for the best matching library spectrum is determined for each best matching library spectrum to generate a sequence of values representing a progression of polishing of the substrate. The sequence of values is compared to a target value, and a polishing endpoint is triggered when the sequence of values reaches the target value.

公开(公告)号：US20200151868A1

公开(公告)日：2020-05-14

申请号：US16744058

申请日：2020-01-15

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Robert D. Tolles ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek ,  Abraham Ravid

IPC: G06T7/00 ,  H04N9/04 ,  G06T5/50 ,  G06T5/00 ,  G06F3/0486 ,  G06F3/0484 ,  B24B37/013

Abstract: A metrology technique for analyzing a substrate includes storing data indicating a boundary of an area in a 2-dimensional color space having a pair of color channels including a first color channel and a second color channel as axes of the color space, receiving color data of a substrate from a camera, generating a color image of the substrate from the color data, performing a comparison of a pair of color values for the pair of color channels for the pixel to the boundary of the area in the 2-dimensional color space for each pixel of a plurality of pixels of the color image to determine whether the pair of color values meet thresholds provided by the boundary, and generating a signal to an operator based on results of the comparison for the plurality of pixels.

公开(公告)号：US20200094370A1

公开(公告)日：2020-03-26

申请号：US16554427

申请日：2019-08-28

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Benjamin Cherian ,  Jun Qian ,  Nicholas Wiswell ,  Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek ,  Thomas H. Osterheld

IPC: B24B37/013 ,  G06N3/08

Abstract: During chemical mechanical polishing of a substrate, a signal value that depends on a thickness of a layer in a measurement spot on a substrate undergoing polishing is determined by a first in-situ monitoring system. An image of at least the measurement spot of the substrate is generated by a second in-situ imaging system. Machine vision processing, e.g., a convolutional neural network, is used to determine a characterizing value for the measurement spot based on the image. Then a measurement value is calculated based on both the characterizing value and the signal value.

公开(公告)号：US20190283209A1

公开(公告)日：2019-09-19

申请号：US16294486

申请日：2019-03-06

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Thomas H. Osterheld ,  Dominic J. Benvegnu

IPC: B24B49/12 ,  B24B37/013 ,  B24B37/04 ,  B24B53/017 ,  G06N3/08

Abstract: A polishing apparatus includes a polishing station to hold a polishing pad, a carrier head to hold a substrate in contact with a polishing pad at the polishing station, a camera positioned to capture an image of a lower surface of a consumable part when the consumable part moves away from the polishing pad, and a controller configured to perform an image processing algorithm on the image to determine whether the consumable part is damaged. The consumable part can be a retaining ring on a carrier head, or a conditioner disk on a conditioner head.

公开(公告)号：US10325364B2

公开(公告)日：2019-06-18

申请号：US15686785

申请日：2017-08-25

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Dominic J. Benvegnu

IPC: G06T7/00 ,  G06T7/90 ,  B24B37/013 ,  H01L21/67 ,  H01L21/677 ,  H04N5/225 ,  H04N9/07

Abstract: A metrology system for obtaining a measurement representative of a thickness of a layer on a substrate includes a camera positioned to capture a color image of at least a portion of the substrate. A controller is configured to receive the color image from the camera, store a predetermined path in a coordinate space of at least two dimension including a first color channel and a second color channel, store a function that provides a value representative of a thickness as a function of a position on the predetermined path, determine a coordinate of a pixel in the coordinate space from color data in the color image for the pixel, determine a position of a point on the predetermined path that is closest to the coordinate of the pixel, and calculate a value representative of a thickness from the function and the position of the point on the predetermined path.

公开(公告)号：US20190035699A1

公开(公告)日：2019-01-31

申请号：US16150009

申请日：2018-10-02

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Wei Lu ,  Zhefu Wang ,  Zhihong Wang ,  Hassan G. Iravani ,  Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Ingemar Carlsson ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek ,  Wen-Chiang Tu

IPC: H01L21/66 ,  H01L21/321 ,  B24B37/04 ,  B24B37/013

Abstract: In fabrication of an integrated circuit having a layer with a plurality of conductive interconnects, a layer of a substrate is polished to provide the layer of the integrated circuit. The layer of the substrate includes conductive lines to provide the conductive interconnects. The layer of the substrate includes a closed conductive loop formed of a conductive material in a trench. A depth of the conductive material in the trench is monitored using an inductive monitoring system and a signal is generated. Monitoring includes generating a magnetic field that intermittently passes through the closed conductive loop. A sequence of values over time is extracted from the signal, the sequence of values representing the depth of the conductive material over time.

公开(公告)号：US20170365532A1

公开(公告)日：2017-12-21

申请号：US15694632

申请日：2017-09-01

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Wei Lu ,  Zhefu Wang ,  Zhihong Wang ,  Hassan G. Iravani ,  Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Ingemar Carlsson ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek ,  Wen-Chiang Tu

IPC: H01L21/66 ,  B24B37/04 ,  H01L21/321 ,  B24B37/013

CPC classification number: H01L22/26 ,  B24B37/013 ,  B24B37/04 ,  H01L21/3212 ,  H01L22/14

Abstract: In fabrication of an integrated circuit having a layer with a plurality of conductive interconnects, a layer of a substrate is polished to provide the layer of the integrated circuit. The layer of the substrate includes conductive lines to provide the conductive interconnects. The layer of the substrate includes a closed conductive loop formed of a conductive material in a trench. A depth of the conductive material in the trench is monitored using an inductive monitoring system and a signal is generated. Monitoring includes generating a magnetic field that intermittently passes through the closed conductive loop. A sequence of values over time is extracted from the signal, the sequence of values representing the depth of the conductive material over time.

公开(公告)号：US09799578B2

公开(公告)日：2017-10-24

申请号：US15376312

申请日：2016-12-12

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek ,  David J. Lischka

IPC: C03C15/00 ,  H01L21/66 ,  H01L21/3105 ,  H01L21/321 ,  B24B37/013

CPC classification number: H01L22/26 ,  B24B37/013 ,  B24B49/12 ,  B24D7/12 ,  H01L21/31053 ,  H01L21/3212

Abstract: A method of polishing includes storing a predetermined location and a predetermined number as criteria for detecting an end point, polishing a substrate, measuring a sequence of current spectra of light reflected from the substrate while the substrate is being polished, identifying a plurality of peaks or valleys that persist with an evolving location through at least some of the sequence of current spectra, counting a number of peaks or valleys that were identified that pass the predetermined location as polishing progresses, and ceasing to polish the substrate when the number counted reaches the predetermined number.