Chemical Mechanical Polishing Method and Apparatus

Abstract

A method for removing material from the surface of a semiconductor wafer with a chemical mechanical polishing process is described. The method uses a polishing pad on which a line-pattern of grooves is formed. The pattern comprises orderly spaced grooved-area and area without grooves. The method combines information of the surface topography of the wafer, the nature of the material to be removed, and the available groove pattern on the surface of the polishing pad to generate a process recipe in which the resident time of portions of the semiconductor wafer spends at the grooved and un-grooved areas of the polishing pad during the chemical mechanical polishing process is pre-determined.

1 . A system for removing material from a surface of a semiconductor wafer, comprising 
 a. a chemical mechanical polisher;    b. a measuring means for measuring a topography of a semiconductor wafer surface;    c. an inputting means for inputting wafer information including the nature and the amount of the material to be removed, the topographic measurement of the semiconductor wafer surface, and the chemical mechanical polisher information including a pattern information of a polishing surface of a polishing pad, the pattern information including location of a pattern of flow channels on of the polishing surface and location of a portion of the polishing surface free of flow channels;    d. a storing means for storing information of step c; and    e. a recipe generator for generating a recipe including parameter of resident time of a portion of the semiconductor wafer in the channeled portion of the polishing surface and the resident time of a portion of the semiconductor wafer in the channel-free portion of the polishing surface, based on the information stored in the storing means in step d.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , in which the inputting means, the storing means, and the recipe generator are parts of a computer system.