Carriers and polishing apparatus
AssigneeSpeedfam Corporation
InventorsXu-Jin Wang, Shigeto Izumi, Misuo Sugiyama, Hideo Tanaka
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A carrier and a polishing apparatus are designed to improve the mass producibility of wafers while using a retainer ring formed by a soft material. A rubber sheet 4 is bonded to the bottom surface of a carrier body 2 of the carrier 1 to define a pressure chamber R, a retainer ring 13 formed by a soft material such as EG is bonded to the bottom surface of the sheet 4. A margin block 40 is provided projecting out from the bottom side of the sheet 4, and the thickness of the retainer ring 13 is set to be substantially equal to the sum of the thickness L1 of the margin block 40 and the thickness L2 of the wafer W.
Claims14
A carrier for carrying a wafer having front and back surfaces, said carrier comprising:
- a carrier body having a pressure chamber formed by a depression opening downward covered from below by a pliable sheet;
- a retainer ring for holding the wafer, said retainer ring being attached to the outer periphery of the bottom surface of the pliable sheet and being formed by a soft material;
- and
- a pliable margin block having a bottom surface that deforms in accordance with the back surface of the wafer, said pliable margin block projecting out an equal thickness at the bottom surface of the pliable sheet and being positioned at the inside of said retainer ring;
- wherein a bottom surface of the retainer ring and a front surface of the wafer are substantially coplanar when the wafer is positioned within the carrier for polishing.
A polishing apparatus comprising:
- a rotatable lower platen;
- a carrier provided with a carrier body having a pressure chamber formed by a depression opening downward covered from below by a pliable sheet, a retainer ring for holding the wafer, said retainer ring being attached to the outer periphery of the bottom surface of the pliable sheet and being formed by a soft material, and a pliable margin block having a bottom surface that deforms in accordance with the back surface of the wafer, said pliable margin block projecting out at an equal thickness at the bottom surface of the pliable sheet and being positioned at the inside of the retainer ring;
- wherein a bottom surface of the retainer ring and a front surface of the wafer are substantially coplanar when the wafer is positioned within the carrier for polishing;
- and
- a rotary drive means for making said carrier rotate while pressing it on top of said lower platen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.