An apparatus for polishing semiconductor wafers is provided which is capable of efficiently polishing the semiconductor wafers one-by-one by a multi-step polishing, capable of preventing occurrence of spots and scratches due to attachment and detachment to and from top rings, and capable of polishing the semiconductor wafers with high-flatness surfaces. The polish apparatus includes a plurality of holding shafts for holding the semiconductor wafers, a polish table on which the semiconductor wafers are placed and polished, and means for upwardly and downwardly moving the semiconductor wafers which are held by the holding shafts, in which the upward and downward movement of the holding shafts and the attachment and detachment of the semiconductor wafers to and from the holding shafts are independently carried out for each of the holding shafts.
A method of forming interconnection layers within grooves of an insulating layer. The method includes the steps of: forming grooves in an upper portion of an insulating layer; depositing a conductive layer over a surface of the insulating layer and also within the grooves; and subjecting the conductive layer to a chemical mechanical polishing for polishing the conductive layer, so as to leave the conductive layer only within the grooves, thereby forming interconnection layers in the grooves. The chemical mechanical polishing is carried out by use of a polishing pad having a polyurethane foam polishing pad surface at a down pressure of no more than 420 gwt/cm.sup.2.
There is disclosed a method for polishing a work wherein polishing liquid is supplied to a polishing pad, and a relative movement is carried out between the work and the polishing pad with pressing the work on the polishing pad, wherein the work of which press pressure was set to 0 to terminate polishing is released from the polishing pad within 45 seconds after the termination of polishing. When plural works are simultaneously polished, preferably only the work to which press pressure was set to 0 to terminate polishing is released from the polishing pad, and polishing of the other works is continued, which are released from the polishing pad after press pressure thereto is set 0 one by one. In the resultant work, corrosion on the surface of the work due to the polishing liquid can be suppressed, an amount of the cleaning liquid used in a cleaning process can be reduced, particles can be removed efficiently in a short time, almost no pits are formed on the surface after polishing, only few amounts of particles are adhered, and there is almost no deviation in the works.
A method for preparing a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus for polishing product substrates includes polishing designated "warm-up" substrates until polishing pad characteristics have achieved steady state conditions. The reusable warm-up substrates may be formed of a mechanically resistant material or a material having substantially the same removal characteristic as the product film to be polished. The reusable warm-up substrates may also be formed of a mechanically resistant film formed over a semiconductor substrate. The polishing pad characteristic of pad compression may be determined using a previously established correlation or it may be measured.
An apparatus for chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) of semiconductor wafers that allows independent micro-control of each spindle for tailored CMP performance. The present invention provides, in one embodiment, a CMP tool that includes a stationary bridge that houses a rack and pinion assembly. The rack and pinion assembly is coupled to a plurality of motor assemblies each of which is coupled to rotate a spindle. Significantly, movements of the spindles across are individually and independently controlled by the rack and pinion assembly. An advantage of the present independent spindle motion design allows optimization of the CMP process for each spindle and enables more accurate prediction of the effect of translation on CMP performance. Independent rotation and downforce capability of the present invention provides additional flexibility in terms of tuning polish rates and uniformity. Another advantage of the present invention is that a more compact enclosure for wafer isolation can be achieved.
An apparatus and method for polishing objects, such as semiconductor wafers, utilizes one or more pivotable load-and-unload cups to transfer the objects to and/or from one or more object carriers to polish the objects. Each pivotable load-and-unload cup may be configured to transfer the objects to and/or from a single object carrier. Alternatively, each pivotable load-and-unload cup may be configured to transfer the objects to and/or from two object carriers. The pivotable load-and-unload cups may be configured to be pivoted about one or more pivoting points over at least one polishing surface, such as a polishing pad surface.
