Method and apparatus for pulse electrochemical polishing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9865476-B2
Application number	US-201214402853-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2012
Priority date	May 24, 2012
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

A method and apparatus for pulse electrochemical polishing a wafer are disclosed. The method comprises steps of: establishing a duty cycle table showing all points on the wafer, a removal thickness corresponding to every point and a duty cycle corresponding to the removal thickness; driving a wafer chuck holding and positioning the wafer to move at a preset speed so that a special point on the wafer is right above a nozzle ejecting charged electrolyte onto the wafer; looking up the duty cycle table and obtaining the removal thickness and the duty cycle corresponding to the special point; and applying a preset pulse power source to the wafer and the nozzle and the actual polishing power source for polishing the special point being equal to the duty cycle multiplying by the preset power source.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for pulse electrochemical polishing a wafer, comprising:
establishing a duty cycle table showing 10,000 or more points on the wafer, a removal thickness corresponding to every point and a duty cycle corresponding to the removal thickness, wherein the step of establishing a duty cycle table further comprises steps of:
measuring the removal thickness of a number of points on the wafer and then computing the removal thickness of each of the 10,000 or more points on the wafer based on the measured removal thickness;
obtaining a linear function model of the removal thickness and duty cycle; and
storing the linear function model and converting the removal thickness of each of the 10,000 or more points on the wafer into a corresponding duty cycle according to the linear function model;

driving a wafer chuck holding and positioning the wafer to move at a preset speed so that a special point on the wafer is right above a nozzle ejecting charged electrolyte onto the wafer;
looking up the duty cycle table to obtain the removal thickness and the duty cycle corresponding to the special point; and
applying a preset pulse power source to the wafer and the nozzle and the actual polishing power source for polishing the special point being equal to the duty cycle multiplying by the preset power source.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the step of measuring the removal thickness of a number of points on the wafer further includes measuring the removal thickness of the number of points on the wafer by using a thickness meter.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the thickness meter is a non-contact thickness meter.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the thickness meter is a contact thickness meter.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the step of computing the removal thickness of all points on the wafer further includes computing the removal thickness of each of the 10,000 or more points on the wafer by using an interpolation mechanism.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the preset pulse power source is a DC pulse electric current.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the preset pulse power source is a DC pulse voltage.

8. An apparatus for pulse electrochemical polishing a wafer, comprising:
a wafer chuck, for holding and positioning the wafer;
a nozzle, for charging and ejecting electrolyte onto the wafer;
a power supply, for providing a pulse power source to the wafer and the nozzle; and
a host computer, for:
storing a duty cycle table showing 10,000 or more points on the wafer, a removal thickness corresponding to each of the 10,000 or more points based on a measured removal thickness of a number of points on the wafer, and a duty cycle corresponding to the removal thickness,
storing a linear function model of the removal thickness and duty cycle,
converting the removal thickness of each of the 10,000 or more points on the wafer into a corresponding duty cycle according to the linear function model,
controlling the wafer chuck to move at a preset speed so that a special point on the wafer is right above a nozzle electing charged electrolyte onto the wafer, and
controlling the actual polishing power source provided by the power supply based on the duty cycle table to apply a preset pulse power source to the wafer and the nozzle and the actual polishing power source for polishing the special point being equal to the duty cycle multiplying by the preset power source.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising a thickness measuring apparatus for measuring the removal thickness of a number of points on the wafer.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the pulse power source is a DC pulse electric current.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the pulse power source is a DC pulse voltage.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the thickness measuring apparatus is a non-contact thickness meter.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the thickness measuring apparatus is a contact thickness meter.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the host computer computes the removal thickness of each of the 10,000 or more points on the wafer by using an interpolation mechanism.

Assignees

• Wang Jian
• Jin Yinuo
• Wang Jun
• Wang Hui
• Acm Research Shanghai Inc

Inventors

• Wang Jian
• Jin Yinuo
• Wang Jun
• Wang Hui

Classifications

• H10P74/203 Primary

  Structural properties, e.g. testing or measuring thicknesses, line widths, warpage, bond strengths or physical defects · CPC title

• H10P74/23

  characterised by multiple measurements, corrections, marking or sorting processes · CPC title

• H10P95/04 Primary

  Planarisation of conductive or resistive materials · CPC title

• C25F3/30

  of semiconducting materials · CPC title

• H01L22/12

  Electricity · mapped topic