The present invention is related to a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) abrasive pad conditioner, particularly to a CMP abrasive pad conditioner having both good machining capability and removing capability as well as a method for manufacturing same.
In the semiconductor wafer fabrication process, it is common to use a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process for achieving the object of planarization of the surface of wafer, in which a polishing pad fixed to a rotary table is used to contact with and polish the wafer. Fragments generated by polishing, and polishing slurry may be accumulated in voids of the polishing pad, and the polishing pad is then consumed so as to reduce the polishing effect over a long period. Therefore, it is common to use a conditioner for the removal of the fragments and polishing shiny remained in the polishing pad.
The conventional CMP abrasive pad conditioner is roughly classified into two categories: one is a diamond particle used as polishing material, and the other is a diamond film, deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), used as polishing material.
In conventional technology, in respect of the CMP abrasive pad conditioner utilizing the diamond film deposited by CVD as polishing material, a CMP pad conditioner, provided by Taiwan Patent Publication No. 200948533, for example, is allowed to apply a CVD diamond coating onto a substrate consisting of ceramic material and an preferably unreacted carbide-forming material, while the conditioner thereof is provided with predictable or unpredictable raised surface features for assisting in the usefulness of the conditioner. The above raised surface features include concentric circles, broken or staggered concentric circles, spirals, broken spirals, rectangles, broken rectangles and so on.
In addition, the applicant provided, in Taiwan Patent Application No. 105124293 proposed previously, a CMP abrasive pad conditioner comprising a bottom substrate, an intermediate substrate and a polishing layer. The intermediate substrate is located on the bottom substrate. The intermediate substrate includes a hollow portion, an annular portion surrounding the hollow portion, and at least one projecting ring projecting out of the annular portion away from the bottom substrate. The projecting ring includes a plurality of bumps arranged to be spaced apart from each other along an annulus region. The bumps are extended in a radial direction of the intermediate substrate. Moreover, a diamond layer is located on the intermediate substrate, for conforming to the bumps, so as to form a plurality of the abrasive projections. The abrasive projections may be provided with either a flat top surface, or a rough top surface.
Furthermore, Taiwan Patent Publication No. 201249595, for example, provided a chemical mechanical planarization polishing pad conditioner, including a substrate comprising a first subset of protrusions and a second subset of protrusions, the first subset of protrusions comprising a first average height, and the second subset of protrusions comprising a second average height different from the first average height. Moreover, the top of the first subset of protrusions and that of the second subset of protrusions are both provided with a layer of polycrystalline diamond. In the specification of this application, it is mentioned that the distal surface of one or more protrusions of the first subset of protrusions may be provided with an irregular or rough surface, while the distal surface of each protrusion of the second subset of protrusions may be provided with irregular or rough surface. In another embodiment, however, the top of one or more projections of the first subset of protrusions may be provided with a flat surface, while the top of each protrusion of the second subset of protrusions may be provided with a flat surface.
The aforementioned CMP abrasive pad conditioner, using a CVD diamond film as polishing material, may be further combined with polishing particles. For instance, the applicant just disclosed, in Taiwan Patent Publication No. 201630689 proposed previously, a CMP abrasive pad conditioner comprising a base. The surface of the base is divided into a central surface and a peripheral surface concentrically. The central surface is depressed to be a depressed portion. The peripheral surface surrounding the central surface is depressed to form a plurality of mounting holes. Moreover, a plurality of sliders are provided on the peripheral surface and spread between the mounting holes. Each slider is provided with a conditioning face. In addition, the CMP conditioner is further provided with a plurality of conditioning posts, each conditioning post being correspondingly located in the mounting hole. The conditioning post comprises a post body and an abrasive material mounted on the top surface of the post body.
In the above prior art, for example, Taiwan Patent Publication No. 200948533 only mentioned the raised surface features formed on the substrate. Moreover, although Taiwan Patent Application No. 105124293, Taiwan Patent Publication No. 201249595 and No. 201630689 disclosed that the abrasive projection may be provided with a rough top surface, the rough top surface is not further defined or described yet. Only in the specification of Taiwan Patent Publication No. 201249595, it is roughly mentioned that roughness or the irregular surface may be at least partly attributable to roughness of porous graphite substrate of converted silicon carbide. Furthermore, the rough top surface is only one aspect of embodiment. In another embodiment, a flat top surface is also allowed. Obviously, the type of the top surface of the abrasive projection is not the key point on which the aforementioned prior art focused.
Therefore, even though the effects of consistent polishing or cutting speed, enhanced removing capability and etc., are obtained by providing a plurality of nonplanar bumps and arranging the bumps in a specific form via improvement on the top surface of the conventional CMP conditioner in the aforementioned prior art, the fragments remained in pores of the abrasive pad are still incapable of being removed effectively in the practical application of machining and the service life of the (MP conditioner is impacted.
It is the main object of the present invention to eliminate the drawback of shortened service life of the chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) conditioner due to incapability of removing impurities and chips effectively of the conventional CMP conditioner using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond film.
For achieving the above object, it is found that, in the present invention, when a top surface (e.g., working face) of a CMP abrasive pad conditioner is machined to be provided with a patterned configuration and a specific center line average roughness (Ra), uniformity of the CMP abrasive pad conditioner is better, and the better effect of removing fragments is also exhibited.
More specifically, a CMP abrasive pad conditioner provided by the present invention comprises: a bottom substrate; an intermediate layer located on the bottom substrate, the intermediate layer including a hollow portion and an annular portion surrounding the hollow portion, the annular portion being provided with a plurality of bumps; and a diamond film located on the intermediate layer, and forming a plurality of abrasive projections corresponding to the plurality of bumps of the intermediate layer; in this case, a top surface of each of the plurality of abrasive projections is formed with a patterned configuration and the top surface is provided with a center line average roughness (Ra) between 2 and 20.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the patterned configuration includes a plurality of solid figures arranged regularly or irregularly.
In one embodiment of the present invention, each of the plurality of solid figures is selected from the group consisting of triangular pyramid, quadrangular pyramid, pentagonal pyramid, hexagonal pyramid, heptagonal pyramid, octagonal pyramid, triangular prism, quadrangular prism, pentagonal prism, hexagonal prism, heptagonal prism, octagonal prism, circular cone, circular cylinder, elliptic cone, elliptic circle cylinder and the combination thereof.
In one embodiment of the present invention, there is a first interval between the center point of one of the plurality of solid figures and the center point of adjacent solid figure, the first interval being longer than a width of the solid figure, and the first interval being 0.5 to 8.3 times as long as the width of the solid figure.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the first interval is in a range of 50 μm to 250 μm.
In one embodiment of the present invention, each of the plurality of solid figures is provided with a width between 30 μm and 100 μm.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a number of the plurality of solid figures included on each of the plurality of abrasive projection per square millimeter (mm2) is in a range of 10 to 250.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of solid figures are arranged to form a plurality of solid figure aggregation portions on each of the plurality of abrasive projections.
In one embodiment of the present invention, at least one flat region is provided between one of the plurality of solid figure aggregation portions and one adjacent solid figure aggregation portions, without the abrasive projection being included in the flat region.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the intermediate layer is made of conducting silicon carbide or non-conducting silicon carbide.
In one embodiment of the present invention, each of the plurality of abrasive projections is presented as an arc with respect to a radial direction of the intermediate layer.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of bumps are arranged on the annular portion to form projecting rings, and the plurality of bumps of adjacent projecting rings are offset with respect to each other.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of bumps of the annular portion are formed through energy machining, electric discharge machining or die casting.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for manufacturing CMP abrasive pad conditioner comprising: providing a bottom substrate; locating an intermediate layer, the intermediate layer including a hollow portion and an annular portion surrounding the hollow portion, the annular portion being formed thereon with a plurality of bumps; forming a diamond film on the intermediate layer, and forming a plurality of abrasive projections by conforming the diamond film to the plurality of bumps of the intermediate layer, a top surface of each of the plurality of abrasive projections being formed with a patterned configuration and provided with a center line average roughness (Ra) between 2 and 20; and fixing the intermediate layer at one side thereof to the bottom substrate.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the intermediate layer is fixed to the bottom substrate via a bonding layer.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the bumps of the annular portion are formed through energy machining, electric discharge machining or die casting.
Thus, the CMP abrasive pad conditioner of the present invention is provided on the top surface thereof with a patterned configuration, so as to increase a center line average roughness (Ra) of the top surface. In comparison with conventional technology, therefore, uniformity of the CMP abrasive pad conditioner of the present invention is enhanced. Furthermore, when the CMP abrasive pad conditioner with good uniformity is used for conditioning, even figments remained in pores may be also removed successfully. Thereby, removing capability may be enhanced. The above merits are summarized that the service life of the CMP conditioner of the present invention will be extended.
The detailed description and technical content of the present invention will now be described in accompany with drawings as follows.
Referring to
The CMP abrasive pad conditioner 1 of the present invention mainly comprises a bottom substrate 10, an intermediate layer 20, and a diamond film 30. In this connection, the intermediate layer 20 is located on the bottom substrate 10, while the intermediate layer 20 is clad in the diamond film 30. In this embodiment, a method for manufacturing the CMP abrasive pad conditioner 1 including:
(S1) providing a bottom substrate 10;
(S2) locating an intermediate layer 20, the intermediate layer 20 including a hollow portion 20a and an annular portion 20b surrounding the hollow portion 20a, the annular portion 20b being provided with a plurality of bumps 201 through energy machining (such as, electric discharge machining, laser machining, for example) or die casting, in which, for instance, the electric discharge machining is used cooperatively when a conducting material is used as the intermediate layer 20, while the laser machining is used cooperatively when a non-conducting material is used as the intermediate layer 20 so as to produce the plurality of bumps 201 on the annular portion 20b, and additionally, die casting may be further used to obtain the aforementioned configuration directly in the process of formation, in which, for instance, powders are pressed to be an expected shape and then formed by sintering;
(S3) forming a diamond film 30 on the intermediate layer 20, and forming a plurality of abrasive projections 301 by conforming the diamond film 30 to the plurality of bumps 201 of the intermediate layer 20, a top surface 3011 of each of the plurality of abrasive projections 301 being formed with a patterned configuration and provided with a center line average roughness (Ra) between 2 and 20; and
(S4) fixing the intermediate layer 20 at one side thereof to the bottom substrate 10.
The configuration of the CMP abrasive pad conditioner 1 will be introduced in more detail hereinafter.
The bottom substrate 10 may be either a planar substrate, or a non-planar substrate provided with a groove accommodating the intermediate layer 20. The material suitable for the bottom substrate 10 of the present invention may be, for example, stainless steel, metallic material, high-molecular material, ceramic material or the combination thereof.
The intermediate layer 20 is located on the bottom substrate 10, and material forming the intermediate layer 20 may be conducting silicon carbide or non-conducting silicon carbide. In this embodiment, the intermediate layer 20 includes a hollow portion 20a and an annular portion 20b surrounding the hollow portion 20a. The annular portion 20b is engraved by laser machining to be provided with a plurality of bumps 201. The plurality of bumps 201 are arranged along the annular portion 20b to form a projecting ring, and the plurality of bumps 201 may be arranged to form at least one circle of the projecting ring, such as 1 to 20 circles of the projecting rings, preferably 2 to 20 circles of the projecting rings, for example, centered on the hollow portion 20a depending on the situation. In this embodiment, two circles of the projecting rings are taken for illustration. In this case, the plurality of bumps 201 of adjacent projecting rings are offset with respect to each other. The shape of each of the plurality of bumps 201 may be, for example, trapezoid, sector, or other shapes designed as required, without special limitation. In this embodiment, the plurality of bumps 201 are formed by engraving through laser machining, and the top surface of each of the plurality of bumps 201 may be also engraved through laser machining to be provided with a patterned configuration. In another embodiment, however, it is also possible to form the plurality of bumps 201 and the patterned configuration through electric discharge machining or die casting, for example, without special limitation in the present invention.
In this embodiment, the diamond film 30 is formed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The CVD may be, for example, filament CVD, plasma-enhanced CVT) (PECVD), microwave plasma CVD (MPCVD), or the like. A surface conforming to the plurality of bumps 201 of the intermediate layer 20 so as to cover the intermediate layer 20 is formed with a plurality of abrasive projections 301. In this embodiment, each of the plurality of abrasive projections 301 is presented as an arc with respect to a radial direction of the intermediate layer 20, as drawn in
The plurality of abrasive projections 301 projected out of the diamond film 30 are also allowed to conform to the plurality of bumps 201, because the diamond film 30 is formed in conformation with the shape of the intermediate layer 20. Thus, a top surface 3011 of each of the plurality of abrasive projections 301 is formed with a patterned configuration corresponding to the plurality of bumps 201. The patterned configuration includes a plurality of solid figures arranged regularly or irregularly. More specifically, the patterned configuration may be a plurality of regularly or irregularly arranged triangular pyramids, quadrangular pyramids, pentagonal pyramids, hexagonal pyramids, heptagonal pyramids, octagonal pyramids, triangular prisms, quadrangular prisms, pentagonal prisms, hexagonal prisms, heptagonal prisms, octagonal prisms, circular cones, circular cylinders, elliptic cones, elliptic circle cylinders or the combination thereof. The top surface 3011 of the abrasive projection 301 is endowed with a center line average roughness (Ra) between 2 and 20 by virtue of the patterned configuration.
In this embodiment, the bottom substrate 10 and the intermediate layer 20 are bound together via a bonding layer 40. Any material with adhesion, such as resin, for example, may be selected for the bonding layer 40. In another embodiment, it is also possible to fix the intermediate layer 20 to the bottom substrate 10 via brazing or mechanical combination.
Referring to
As conforming to the shape of the intermediate layer 20, the top surface 3011 of each of the plurality of abrasive projections 301 of the diamond film 30 is formed thereon with the patterned configuration by virtue of a plurality of solid
Referring to
In this embodiment, the first interval D1 is longer than a width D0 of the solid
In this embodiment, the number of the plurality of solid
The CMP abrasive pact conditioner 1 of a second embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in
Proceeding to
In another embodiment, referring to
For instance, in the aspect shown in
In the aspect shown in
In the aspect shown in
In the aspect shown in
In the aspect shown in
In the aspect shown in
In the aspect shown in
In the aspect shown in
To sum up, the CMP abrasive pad conditioner 1 of the present invention is provided on the top surface 3011 thereof with a patterned configuration, so as to increase a center line average roughness (Ra) of the top surface 3011. In comparison with conventional technology, therefore, uniformity of the CMP abrasive pad conditioner 1 of the present invention is enhanced. Furthermore, when the CMP abrasive pad conditioner 1 with good uniformity is used for conditioning, even fragments remained in pores may be also removed successfully. Thereby, removing capability may be enhanced. The above merits are summarized that the service life of the CMP conditioner of the present invention will be extended.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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106115709 A | May 2017 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6213856 | Cho | Apr 2001 | B1 |
20120171935 | Ruland | Jul 2012 | A1 |
20150283671 | Chou | Oct 2015 | A1 |
20160236320 | Chou | Aug 2016 | A1 |
20160346901 | Chou | Dec 2016 | A1 |
20180104792 | Hong | Apr 2018 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20180326553 A1 | Nov 2018 | US |