A polishing pad and a method for polishing semiconductor wafers. The polishing pad includes a polishing layer and a rigid layer. The rigid layer adjacent the polishing layer imparts a controlled rigidity to the polishing layer. The resilient layer adjacent the rigid layer provides substantially uniform pressure to the rigid layer. During operation, the rigid layer and the resilient layer apply an elastic flexure pressure to the polishing layer to induce a controlled flex in the polishing layer to conform to the global topography of the wafer surface while maintaining a controlled rigidity over the local topography of the wafer surface.
A method and apparatus for chemical/mechanical polishing in which an object to be polished, such as a wafer, is polished by pressing a polishing pad on the object and rotating the polishing pad relative to the object while supplying a slurry to the object, wherein the polishing pad contains a shape memory material. This is effective to easily repair the polishing pad for a short period of time, and hence to increase the productivity in manufacture of ICs or the like.
The apparatus (method) for polishing semiconductor device is equipped with a polish pad which comprises an upper layer material and a lower layer material of differing degrees of hardness overlying one another, whereby a semiconductor wafer is polished while being pressed against the polish pad, the degree of hardness of the upper layer material of the polish pad being set at Shore spring A hardness 92-98.5, and the degree of hardness of the lower layer material of the polish pad at Shore spring A hardness 78-87.5.
A polishing pad has a sublayer; a top layer attached to the sublayer, the sublayer having a modulus of elasticity between 300 and 5000 psi and a compressibility of less than 30% at 73 psi, wherein the top pad has a modulus of elasticity which is greater than the modulus of elasticity of the sublayer and a compressibility which is smaller than a compressibility of the sublayer.
A polishing pad is provided comprising an upper surface and a lower surface, substantially parallel to one another, wherein the pad has enhanced flexibility produced by scoring of either or both surfaces. The pad thickness is generally greater than 500.mu.. The scoring creates slits having a depth of less than 90% of the thickness.
The polishing body is attached to a substrates. The polishing body has a structure in which a polishing pad, a hard elastic member and a soft members are laminated in that order from the side of the polishing surface. For example, an IC1000 (commercial name) manufactured by Rodel, Inc. is used as the polishing pad. For example, a stainless steel plate is used as the hard elastic member. A Suba400 (commercial name) manufactured by Rodel, Inc. is used as the soft members. The polishing pad 6 has grooves in the polishing surface side. The residual thickness d of the areas of the grooves in the polishing pad is set so as to satisfy the condition 0 mm<d.ltoreq.0.6 mm. As a result, the ability to eliminate steps can be increased, thus allowing the "local pattern flatness" to be improved, while ensuring the "global removal uniformity"; furthermore, a polishing body with a long useful life can be obtained.
