Determination of gain for eddy current sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9281253-B2
Application number	US-201314066571-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2013
Priority date	Oct 29, 2013
Publication date	Mar 8, 2016
Grant date	Mar 8, 2016

Abstract

A method of controlling polishing includes polishing a substrate at a first polishing station, monitoring the substrate with a first eddy current monitoring system to generate a first signal, determining an ending value of the first signal for an end of polishing of the substrate at the first polishing station, determining a first temperature at the first polishing station, polishing the substrate at a second polishing station, monitoring the substrate with a second eddy current monitoring system to generate a second signal, determining a starting value of the second signal for a start of polishing of the substrate at the second polishing station, determining a gain for the second polishing station based on the ending value, the starting value and the first temperature, and calculating a third signal based on the second signal and the gain.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product, tangibly encoded on a non-transitory computer readable media, including instructions to cause a data processing apparatus to:
cause a first polishing station to polish a substrate;
receive a first signal from a first eddy current monitoring system during polishing of the substrate at the first polishing station;
determine an ending value of the first signal for an end of polishing of the substrate at the first polishing station;
determine a first temperature at the first polishing station;
after polishing the substrate at the first polishing station, cause a second polishing station to polish the substrate;
receive a second signal from a second eddy current monitoring system during polishing of the substrate at the second polishing station;
determine a starting value of the second signal for a start of polishing of the substrate at the second polishing station;
determine a gain for the second polishing station based on the ending value, the starting value and the first temperature;
for at least a portion of the second signal collected during polishing of at least one substrate at the second polishing station, calculate a third signal based on the second signal and the gain; and
determine at least one of a polishing endpoint or an adjustment to a polishing parameter for the at least one substrate based on the third signal.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to determine the gain for the second polishing station further include instructions to receive a second temperature at the second polishing station.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the instructions to determine the gain include instructions to calculate the gain based on the resistivity of a layer being polished at the first and second temperatures.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 , comprising instructions to calculate a value G that satisfies
G =[1+alpha( TE post −TE ini )]

where TE post is the first temperature at the first polishing pad, TE ini is the second temperature at the second polishing pad, and alpha is a resistivity factor for a material of layer being polished.

5. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein the instructions to determine the ending value comprise instructions to generate a first sequence of measured values from the first signal, fit a first function to the first sequence of measured values, and calculate the ending value as a value of the first function at an endpoint time for polishing at the first polishing station.

6. The computer program product of claim 3 , comprising instructions to determine a first thickness from the ending value and a calibration function relating thickness to signal strength.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 , comprising instructions to determine an adjusted thickness based on the first thickness, the first temperature and the second temperature.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the instructions to determine the adjusted thickness comprise instructions to multiply the first thickness by [1 +alpha (TE post −TE ini )] where TE post is the first temperature at the first polishing station, TE ini is the second temperature at the second polishing station, and alpha is a resistivity factor for a material of the layer being polished.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , comprising instructions to determine a desired value from the adjusted value and the calibration function.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to determine the starting value comprise instructions to generate a second sequence of measured values from the second signal, fit a second function to the second sequence of measured values, and calculate the starting value as a value of the second function at an approximate start time of polishing at the second polishing station.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to determine the gain comprise instructions to calculate a multiplier N that satisfies

N
=

(

D
-
K

)

(

S
-
K

)

where D is the desired value, S is the starting value, and K is a constant representing a value of the calibration function for zero thickness.

12. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the first temperature represents a temperature of a first polishing pad at the first polishing station and the second temperature represents a temperature of the second polishing pad at the second polishing station.

13. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the first temperature represents a temperature of a layer being polished at the first polishing station and the second temperature represents a temperature of the layer being polished at the second polishing station.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Xu Kun
• Shen Shih-Haur
• Swedek Boguslaw A
• Carlsson Ingemar
• Bennett Doyle E
• Tu Wen-Chiang
• Iravani Hassan G
• Liu Tzu-Yu

Classifications

• H10P74/238

  comprising acting in response to an ongoing measurement without interruption of processing, e.g. endpoint detection or in-situ thickness measurement · CPC title

• H10P74/207

  Electrical properties, e.g. testing or measuring of resistance, deep levels or capacitance-voltage characteristics · CPC title

• H10P72/0602

  Temperature monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0428

  Apparatus for mechanical treatment or grinding or cutting · CPC title

• H10P52/403

  of conductive or resistive materials · CPC title