Single side polishing using shape matching
AssigneeMEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.
InventorsSumeet S. Bhagavat, Khiam How Low, Ichiron Yoshimura, John Allen Pitney
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Abstract
A method of polishing a wafer is disclosed that includes determining a removal profile. The wafer is measured to determine a starting wafer profile and then the wafer is polished. The wafer is again measured after being polished to determine a polished wafer profile. The starting wafer profile and the polished wafer profile are compared to each other to determine the removal profile by computing the amount and shape of material removed from the first wafer during polishing.
Claims20
A method of polishing a wafer, the method comprising:
- measuring a first wafer to determine a starting wafer profile;
- polishing the first wafer after determining the starting wafer profile;
- measuring the first wafer after polishing to determine a polished wafer profile;
- and
- determining a removal profile by comparing the starting wafer profile and the polished profile to compute the amount and shape of material removed from the first wafer during polishing.
A method of predicting optimal orientation of a wafer with respect to an indexed polishing head in a polisher, the method comprising:
- measuring a first wafer to determine a starting profile;
- polishing the first wafer after the starting profile is determined;
- measuring the first wafer after polishing to determine a polished wafer profile;
- calculating the removal profile of the first wafer by superposing the starting profile with the polished wafer profile measuring a second wafer to determine an initial profile;
- superposing the removal profile of the first wafer on the initial profile of the second wafer to predict the shape of the second wafer after single side polishing to determine an initial predicted profile and;
- and
- predicting a flatness parameter of the initial predicted profile.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.