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US 12,427,622 B2Granted
Polishing pad conditioning apparatus
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsCheng-Ping Chen, Shih-Chung Chen, Sheng-Tai Peng, Hung-Lin Chen
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Abstract
A polishing pad conditioning apparatus includes a base, a fiber, and a polymer protruding from a surface of the base and encompassing the fiber.
Claims20
An apparatus for conditioning a semiconductor wafer polishing pad, comprising:
- a base;
- and
- a plurality of clusters extending from the base, wherein:
- each of the plurality of clusters comprises a plurality of protrusions defining a concentric ring and a center protrusion disposed at an axial center of the concentric ring,
- a first subset of the plurality of clusters extends radially from a center of the base towards an edge of the base such that a line extending from the center of the base intersects the center protrusion of each of the first subset of the plurality of protrusions,
- a first protrusion of the plurality of protrusions of at least one cluster of the plurality of clusters protrudes from a surface of the base at a first angle,
- a first portion of the first protrusion comprises a polymer,
- a second portion of the first protrusion comprises at least 90% carbon by weight,
- the first angle is an angle other than 90 degrees,
- the first portion comprises a first part having a uniform width and a second part having a tapered sidewall so as to vary in width, and
- the second part extends from the first part to an exposed part of the second portion protruding beyond the first portion.
8 more elements
An apparatus for conditioning a semiconductor wafer polishing pad, comprising:
- a base;
- and
- a plurality of clusters extending from the base, wherein:
- each of the plurality of clusters comprises a plurality of protrusions defining a concentric ring and a center protrusion disposed at an axial center of the concentric ring,
- a first subset of the plurality of clusters extends radially from a center of the base towards an edge of the base such that a line extending from the center of the base intersects the center protrusion of each of the first subset of the plurality of protrusions, and
- each protrusion within a first cluster of the plurality of clusters comprises:
- a first fiber;
- and
- a first polymer structure protruding from a surface of the base and encompassing the first fiber such that the first fiber protrudes from and over the first polymer structure and a bottommost surface of the first fiber is below a topmost surface of the first polymer structure.
6 more elements
An apparatus for conditioning a semiconductor wafer polishing pad, comprising:
- a base;
- and
- a plurality of clusters extending from the base, wherein:
- each of the plurality of clusters comprises a plurality of protrusions defining a concentric ring and a center protrusion disposed at an axial center of the concentric ring,
- a first subset of the plurality of clusters extends radially from a center of the base towards an edge of the base such that a line extending from the center of the base intersects the center protrusion of each of the first subset of the plurality of protrusions,
- within a first cluster of the plurality of clusters, a first protrusion protrudes a first distance from a surface of the base and a second protrusion protrudes a second distance from the surface of the base, and
- the second distance is different than the first distance.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.