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US 11,529,712 B2Granted
CMP polishing head design for improving removal rate uniformity
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsTe-Chien Hou, Ching-Hong Jiang, Kuo-Yin Lin, Ming-Shiuan She, Shen-Nan Lee, Teng-Chun Tsai, Yung-Cheng Lu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for performing chemical mechanical polish on a wafer includes a polishing head that includes a retaining ring. The polishing head is configured to hold the wafer in the retaining ring. The retaining ring includes a first ring having a first hardness, and a second ring encircled by the first ring, wherein the second ring has a second hardness smaller than the first hardness.
Claims17
An apparatus for polishing a wafer, the apparatus comprising:
- a polishing head comprising:
- a flexible membrane comprising a plurality of zones, each of the zones including a chamber sealed by a material of the flexible membrane;
- a plurality of air passages, each of the chambers being connected to one or more of the air passages;
- and a retaining ring comprising:
- a first ring having a first hardness;
- a second ring within the first ring having a second hardness, wherein the second hardness is less than the first hardness by a difference greater than about 10 on Shore D scale;
- and a third ring surrounding the first ring having a third hardness, wherein the third hardness is greater than the second hardness by a difference greater than about 30 on Shore D scale, and wherein the first ring, the second ring, and the third ring are joined together to form the retaining ring.
4 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a polishing head comprising:
- a retaining ring comprising:
- a first comprising polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) or polyetheretherketone (PEEK);
- a second ring within the first ring, the second ring defining a wafer holding region, the second ring having a second hardness less than a first hardness of the first ring, the second ring comprising polyurethane, polyester, polyether, or polycarbonate;
- and a third ring surrounding the first ring, the third ring having a third hardness greater than the first hardness and the third hardness is greater than the second hardness by more than 30 on a Shore D scale, wherein a first top surface of the first ring is level with a second top surface of the second ring and a third top surface of the third ring and a flexible membrane having a plurality of sealed chambers, the flexible membrane having a diameter less than a diameter of the wafer holding region.
2 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a polishing head comprising:
- a retaining ring, the retaining ring comprising three or more concentric sub-rings, wherein a difference in Shore D hardness between adjacent sub-rings is greater than 5, and wherein the adjacent sub-rings are joined together;
- and a flexible membrane comprising a plurality of zones, the zones being concentric and having circular shapes, wherein a difference in Shore D hardness between an outermost sub-ring of the retaining ring and an innermost sub-ring of the retaining ring is greater than 30.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.