System and method for polishing substrate
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsJiun-Yu LAI, Ying-Hsiu TSAI, Wei-Chen CHANG, Yi-Ching CHIOU
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Abstract
Polishing systems and methods for polishing a substrate are provided. The method includes polishing a substrate using a polishing pad and monitoring a thickness of the polishing pad. The monitoring of the thickness of the polishing pad is performed by detecting an eddy current generated from a conductor element below a bottom surface of the polishing pad. The method also includes replacing the polishing pad with a second polishing pad if the thickness of the polishing pad is smaller than a predetermined value.
Claims20
A method for performing a polishing process, comprising:
- polishing a substrate using a polishing pad;
- monitoring a thickness of the polishing pad, wherein the monitoring of the thickness of the polishing pad is performed by detecting an eddy current generated from a conductor element below a bottom surface of the polishing pad;
- and
- replacing the polishing pad with a second polishing pad if the thickness of the polishing pad is smaller than a predetermined value.
A method for performing a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process, comprising:
- polishing a substrate using a polishing pad;
- providing a slurry between the substrate and the polishing pad;
- conditioning the polishing pad;
- monitoring a thickness of the polishing pad, wherein the monitoring of the thickness of the polishing pad is performed by detecting an eddy current generated from a conductor element below a bottom surface of the polishing pad;
- and
- replacing the polishing pad with a second polishing pad if the thickness of the polishing pad is smaller than a predetermined value.
A method for performing a polishing process, comprising:
- polishing a substrate using a polishing pad;
- monitoring a thickness of the polishing pad during the polishing of the substrate by detecting an eddy current generated from one or more conductor elements positioned under a top surface of the polishing pad, wherein the conductor element is substantially as wide as or wider than the polishing pad;
- and
- stopping the polishing of the substrate if the thickness of the polishing pad is smaller than a predetermined value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.