Chemical mechanical polisher equipped with chilled retaining ring and method of using
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChi-Wei Chung, Tung-Ching Tseng, Tsu Shih, Syun-Ming Jang
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Abstract
A chemical mechanical polishing apparatus that is equipped with a chilled retaining ring and a method for using the apparatus are described. The retaining ring is mounted therein a heat transfer means such as a metal tube and flowing therethrough a heat exchanging fluid for carrying away heat from the wafer mounted in the retaining ring, resulting in a temperature reduction in the slurry solution that contacts the wafer. The present invention apparatus and method therefore reduces the delamination problem for low k dielectric materials during polishing and the wafer scratching problem.
Claims17
A chemical mechanical polisher equipped with a chilled retaining ring comprising:
- a polishing head equipped with a retaining ring chamber and a retaining ring, said retaining ring receives a membrane chamber therein for contacting and pressing a wafer downwardly onto a polishing pad;
- a heat transfer means embedded inside said retaining ring for circulating a heat exchanging fluid therethrough for removing heat from said wafer during a polishing process;
- and
- a pedestal for mounting a polishing pad on a top surface, said polishing pad intimately engages said wafer during said polishing process.
A method for chemical mechanical polishing copper/low k dielectric material without delamination and scratching defects comprising the steps of:
- forming a retaining ring by embedding a heat transfer means therein;
- mounting a membrane chamber inside said retaining ring;
- mounting said retaining ring inside a polishing head;
- mounting a wafer on said membrane chamber with a surface to be polished exposed;
- mounting a polishing pad onto a rotatable pedestal;
- pressing said wafer downwardly onto said polishing pad;
- and
- flowing a heat exchanging fluid into said heat transfer means and removing heat from said wafer during a polishing process such that the temperature of the slurry solution is controlled.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.