Substrate precession mechanism for cmp polishing head
OwnerChih Hung CHEN, Gautam Shashank DANDAVATE +2inventors
InventorsChih Hung CHEN, Gautam Shashank DANDAVATE, Jayakumar GURUSAMY, Samuel Chu-Chiang HSU
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Abstract
A substrate precession apparatus for a carrier head is provided. The apparatus enables substrate precession, which is the rotational movement of the substrate relative to the carrier head during polishing of the substrate. The carrier head and a retaining ring assembly may be de-coupled and move independently of one another to promote substrate precession during a CMP process.
Claims20
An apparatus for polishing a substrate, comprising:
- a head assembly;
- a retaining ring assembly comprising:
- an internal gear;
- and
- a bearing disposed between the head assembly and the retaining ring assembly, wherein the bearing is adapted to decouple the retaining ring assembly from the head assembly;
- and
- a drive assembly adapted to rotate the retaining ring assembly relative to the head assembly.
A retaining ring assembly for a polishing head, comprising:
- a retaining ring having an upper annular portion and a lower annular portion;
- a carrier ring coupled to the upper annular portion;
- a bearing clamp coupled to the carrier ring, the bearing clamp adapted to receive a bearing;
- and
- an internal gear coupled to the bearing clamp.
A method of operating a polishing apparatus, comprising:
- providing a polishing head assembly and a retaining ring assembly, wherein the retaining ring assembly is decoupled from the polishing head assembly;
- rotating the polishing head at a first speed;
- and
- rotating the retaining ring assembly at a second speed greater than the first speed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.