Carrier head with retaining ring and carrier ring
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc., a Delaware corporation
InventorsSteven M. Zuniga, Andrew J. Nagengast, Jeonghoon Oh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A carrier head that has a housing, a base assembly, a retaining ring, a carrier ring, and a flexible membrane is described. The base assembly is vertically movable relative to the housing. The retaining ring is connected to and vertically movable relative to the base assembly and has a lower surface configured to contact a polishing pad and an inner surface configured to circumferentially surround the edge of a substrate to retain the substrate. The carrier ring is connected to and vertically fixed relative to the base assembly, circumferentially surrounds the retaining ring to prevent lateral motion of the retaining ring, and has a bottom surface configured to contact a polishing pad.
Claims18
A carrier head for chemical mechanical polishing of a substrate on a polishing pad, comprising:
- a base;
- an annular retaining ring having an inner surface configured to circumferentially surround the edge of a substrate to retain the substrate, an outer surface, and a lower surface configured to contact a polishing pad, the lower surface of the retaining ring having a plurality of grooves extending from the inner surface of the retaining ring to the outer surface of the retaining ring;
- and
- a carrier ring having an inner surface circumferentially surrounding the retaining ring, an outer surface, and a lower surface configured to contact a polishing pad, the lower surface of the carrier ring having a plurality of grooves extending from the inner surface of the carrier ring to the outer surface of the carrier ring, wherein the plurality of grooves in the lower surface of the carrier ring are wider than the plurality of grooves in the lower surface of the retaining ring;
- and
- a substrate backing member having a substrate mounting surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.