Claims
- 1. A method for diagnosing mechanical or chemical-mechanical planarization processing of microelectronic-device substrate assemblies, comprising:sensing peak drag forces between a microelectronic substrate assembly and a polishing pad along a first lateral axis, the substrate assembly including a substrate, an endpoint over the substrate and a cover layer over the endpoint layer; processing the sensed peak drag forces to generate a force-time relationship between the peak drag forces and time; and estimating the status of a parameter of the planarizing process by assessing exposure of the endpoint layer by monitoring a change from a relatively flat slope of the force-time relationship to an increasing slope.
- 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising moving at least one of the substrate assembly and the polishing pad relative to the other in a planarizing plane to generate lateral drag forces on the substrate assembly and on the pad.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein sensing peak drag forces between a microelectronic substrate assembly and a polishing pad along a first lateral axis includes transferring the lateral drag forces to at least one of a force detection and a force measuring assembly.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein sensing peak drag forces between a microelectronic substrate assembly and a polishing pad along a first lateral axis includes measuring a transferred force vector, the force vector being proportional to the drag forces between the substrate assembly and polishing pad, and processing the sensed peak drag forces includes processing the measured drag force vector to generate the force-time relationship.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein sensing peak drag forces between a microelectronic substrate assembly and a polishing pad along a first lateral axis includes measuring lateral drag forces between a first component coupled to one of the substrate assembly or the polishing pad and a second component in either a carrier assembly holding the substrate assembly or a table supporting the polishing pad by measuring a force vector transferred to the at least one of a force detection and force measuring assembly, the lateral drag forces between the first and second components being proportionate to lateral drag forces between the substrate assembly and the polishing pad.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the sensed peak drag forces to generate a force-time relationship includes creating a force-time relationship by correlating peak amplitudes of the sensed drag forces with time.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/387,309, filed Aug. 31, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,492,273.
US Referenced Citations (17)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
08-243917 |
Sep 1996 |
JP |
10-256209 |
Sep 1998 |
JP |