In Situ Measurement of Fluid Pressure at the Wafer-Pad Interface during Chemical Mechanical Polishing of 12-inch Wafer

In this paper, a novel in-situ interfacial fluid pressure measurement system is developed for the practical chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) equipment, in which the pressure sensors are equidistantly embedded in the platen along the radial direction and sweep beneath the wafer surface during CMP. Interfacial fluid pressure mapping is realized for standard 12 '' blanket wafers at the down pressure of 0.5 similar to 2.0 psi. The fluid pressure profiles from the leading edge to the trailing edge and the pressure contour maps of the fluid film across the whole wafer surface are constructed and displayed. Results reveal a large positive pressure region located near the wafer trailing edge and a small negative pressure region located near the leading edge, which is quite different from the negative dominated results of previous studies. The fluid pressure can support 15% similar to 30% of the applied pressure. The down pressure has great effect on the fluid pressure due to the wafer's bend under the applied load. When the down pressure increases, the positive pressure region expands and slightly shifts toward the outer of the pad while the negative pressure region shrinks. (C) 2011 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/2.023201jes]