公开(公告)号：US20220388111A1

公开(公告)日：2022-12-08

申请号：US17338032

申请日：2021-06-03

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

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

IPC: B24B37/013 ,  H01L21/67 ,  H01L21/3105 ,  H01L21/321 ,  H01L21/66 ,  G01B11/06

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.

公开(公告)号：US20220281058A1

公开(公告)日：2022-09-08

申请号：US17674772

申请日：2022-02-17

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Nicholas A. Wiswell ,  Sohrab Pourmand ,  Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Thomas H. Osterheld ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek

IPC: B24B37/013 ,  B24B49/00 ,  B24B37/04

Abstract: A chemical mechanical polishing apparatus includes a platen to support a polishing pad, a carrier head to a surface of a substrate against the polishing pad, a motor to generate relative motion between the platen and the carrier head so as to polish an overlying layer on the substrate, an in-situ acoustic monitoring system, and a controller. The in-situ acoustic monitoring system includes an acoustic signal generator to emit acoustic signals and an acoustic signal sensor that receives acoustic signals reflected from the surface of the substrate. The controller is configured to detect exposure of an underlying layer due to the polishing of the substrate based on measurements from the in-situ acoustic monitoring system.

公开(公告)号：US20210358113A1

公开(公告)日：2021-11-18

申请号：US17388961

申请日：2021-07-29

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

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

IPC: G06T7/00 ,  G06T5/00 ,  H01L21/67 ,  G01B11/06

Abstract: A layer thickness measurement system includes a support to hold a substrate, an optical sensor to capture a color image of at least a portion of the substrate, and a controller. The controller is configured to receive the color image from the optical sensor, perform a color correction on the color image to generate an adjusted color image having increased color contrast, determine a coordinate of the pixel in a coordinate space of at least two dimensions including a first color channel and a second color channel from color data in the adjusted color image for each of the adjusted color image, and calculate a value representative of a thickness based on the coordinate of the pixel of the adjusted color image in the coordinate space.

公开(公告)号：US11079459B2

公开(公告)日：2021-08-03

申请号：US15867543

申请日：2018-01-10

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Kun Xu ,  Ingemar Carlsson ,  Shih-Haur Shen ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek ,  Tzu-Yu Liu

IPC: G01R35/00 ,  C09G1/00 ,  B24B37/04 ,  B24B37/005 ,  C09G1/02

Abstract: A first resistivity value and a correlation function relating thickness of a conductive layer having the first resistivity value to a signal from an in-situ monitoring system are stored. A second resistivity value for a conductive layer on a substrate is received. A sequence of signal values that depend on thickness of the conductive layer is received from an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system that monitors the substrate during polishing. A sequence of thickness values is generated based on the sequence of signal values and the correlation function. For at least some thickness values of the sequence of thickness values adjusted thickness values are generated that compensate for variation between the first resistivity value and the second resistivity value to generate a sequence of adjusted thickness values. A polishing endpoint is detected or an adjustment for a polishing parameter is determined based on the sequence of adjusted thickness values.

公开(公告)号：US10994389B2

公开(公告)日：2021-05-04

申请号：US15953203

申请日：2018-04-13

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Kun Xu ,  Hassan G. Iravani ,  Denis Ivanov ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek ,  Shih-Haur Shen ,  Harry Q. Lee ,  Benjamin Cherian

IPC: B24B37/013 ,  H01L21/306 ,  H01L21/66 ,  G06N3/08 ,  G06N3/04

Abstract: A method of polishing a layer on the substrate at a polishing station includes the actions of monitoring the layer during polishing at the polishing station with an in-situ monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals for a plurality of different locations on the layer; generating, for each location of the plurality of different locations, an estimated measure of thickness of the location, the generating including processing the plurality of measured signals through a neural network; and at least one of detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on each estimated measure of thickness.

公开(公告)号：US10766119B2

公开(公告)日：2020-09-08

申请号：US14322686

申请日：2014-07-02

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

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

IPC: B24B49/12 ,  B24B37/013 ,  H01L21/26 ,  B24D7/14 ,  H01L21/66 ,  B24B49/08 ,  B24B37/20 ,  G05B15/02 ,  G05B13/04 ,  H01L21/321 ,  H01L21/3105

Abstract: A computer implemented method of monitoring a polishing process includes, for each sweep of a plurality of sweeps of an optical sensor across a substrate undergoing polishing, obtaining a plurality of current spectra, each current spectrum of the plurality of current spectra being a spectrum resulting from reflection of white light from the substrate, for each sweep of the plurality of sweeps, determining a difference between each current spectrum and each reference spectrum of a plurality of reference spectra to generate a plurality of differences, for each sweep of the plurality of sweeps, determining a smallest difference of the plurality of differences, thus generating a sequence of smallest difference, and determining a polishing endpoint based on the sequence of smallest differences.

公开(公告)号：US10391610B2

公开(公告)日：2019-08-27

申请号：US15726148

申请日：2017-10-05

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Hassan G. Iravani ,  Kun Xu ,  Denis Ivanov ,  Shih-Haur Shen ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek

IPC: B24B49/04 ,  B24B49/10 ,  G01N27/02 ,  H01L21/66

Abstract: An apparatus for chemical mechanical polishing includes a support for a polishing pad having a polishing surface, and an electromagnetic induction monitoring system to generate a magnetic field to monitor a substrate being polished by the polishing pad. The electromagnetic induction monitoring system includes a core and a coil wound around a portion of the core. The core includes a back portion, a center post extending from the back portion in a first direction normal to the polishing surface, and an annular rim extending from the back portion in parallel with the center post and surrounding and spaced apart from the center post by a gap. A width of the gap is less than a width of the center post, and a surface area of a top surface of the annular rim is at least two times greater than a surface area of a top surface of the center post.

公开(公告)号：US20190244374A1

公开(公告)日：2019-08-08

申请号：US16388777

申请日：2019-04-18

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Dominic J. Benvegnu ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek

IPC: G06T7/40 ,  G06T7/90 ,  H04N5/247 ,  H04N5/225 ,  G06T7/00 ,  H04N9/04 ,  B24B37/013

CPC classification number: G06T7/40 ,  B24B37/013 ,  G06T7/0004 ,  G06T7/90 ,  G06T2207/10024 ,  G06T2207/30148 ,  H04N5/2256 ,  H04N5/247 ,  H04N9/04

Abstract: A system for obtaining a measurement representative of a thickness of a layer on a substrate includes a support to hold a substrate, an optical assembly to capture two color images with light impinging the substrate at different angles of incidence, and a controller. The controller is configured to store a function that provides a value representative of a thickness as a function of position along a predetermined path in a coordinate space of at least four dimensions. For a pixel in the two color images, the controller determines a coordinate in the coordinate space from the color data, determines a position of a point on the predetermined path that is closest to the coordinate, and calculates a value representative of a thickness from the function and the position of the point on the predetermined path.

公开(公告)号：US10276460B2

公开(公告)日：2019-04-30

申请号：US15403915

申请日：2017-01-11

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

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

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

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：US10199281B2

公开(公告)日：2019-02-05

申请号：US15891290

申请日：2018-02-07

Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.

Inventor： Wei Lu ,  Zhihong Wang ,  Wen-Chiang Tu ,  Zhefu Wang ,  Hassan G. Iravani ,  Boguslaw A. Swedek ,  Fred C. Redeker ,  William H. McClintock

IPC: H01L21/66 ,  H01L21/321

Abstract: A substrate for use in fabrication of an integrated circuit has a layer with a plurality of conductive interconnects. The substrate includes a semiconductor body, a dielectric layer disposed over the semiconductor body, a plurality of conductive lines of a conductive material disposed in first trenches in the dielectric layer to provide the conductive interconnects, and a closed conductive loop structure of the conductive material disposed in second trenches in the dielectric layer. The closed conductive loop is not electrically connected to any of the conductive lines.