Patent ID: 6682398
Filing Date: 2004-01-27
Classification: B24B

Abstract:
A method for characterizing planarizing properties of a selected expendable material combination in a chemical-mechanical polishing process, which comprises:providing a combination of expendable materials including a softcloth and a polishing agent; prescribing a respective value range for processing parameters including a pressure and a relative rotational velocity between a substrate and a softcloth; providing test substrates with test patterns with different feature densities; for each of the test substrates, prescribing a combination of values for the processing parameters of the pressure and the relative rotational velocity of the substrate and the softcloth; performing a polishing process for each of the test substrates while the respective combination of the values for the processing parameters is maintained until saturation is achieved; determining a characteristic quantity for the global grade level from the test substrates that have been polished; and determining expendable material parameters that characterize the planarizing properties for the selected expendable material combination from a functional relationship between the characteristic quantity for the global grade level to a quotient of the relative velocity and the pressure for each one of the test substrates.