| US 7,481,695 B2 | ||
| Polishing apparatus and methods having high processing workload for controlling polishing pressure applied by polishing head | ||
| Miguel A. Saldana, Fremont, Calif. (US); and Damon Vincent Williams, Fremont, Calif. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Dec. 22, 2000, as Appl. No. 9/748,708. | ||
| Application 09/748708 is a continuation in part of application No. 09/644135, filed on Aug. 22, 2000, granted, now 6,585,572, filed on Jul. 01, 2003. | ||
| Application 09/644135 is a continuation in part of application No. 09/668667, filed on Sep. 22, 2000, granted, now 6,652,357, filed on Nov. 25, 2003. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2002/0146970 A1, Oct. 10, 2002 | ||
| Int. Cl. B24B 5/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 451—5 [451/41; 451/285; 700/2; 700/95] | 17 Claims |
| 1. Apparatus for processing data for controlling a pressure to be applied to contact areas of a wafer and a polishing pad
during a step in chemical mechanical polishing operations, the apparatus comprising:
a first processor programmed to provide pressure data representing the pressure to be applied to the contact areas during
a polishing step; and
a second processor programmed to process data representing relative movement between the wafer and the pad in overlapped contacting
positions for providing area data representing a value of the contact areas between the wafer and the pad in the overlapped
positions;
the second processor being further programmed to process the area data and the pressure data for providing force data representing
the force to be applied to the contact areas during the polishing step of the sequence.
|