Abstract:
A chemical mechanical polishing equipment has a polishing pad, a holder, a slurry supply and a conditioner. The holder is disposed above the polishing pad and carries a wafer for polishing the surface of wafer. The slurry supply is disposed above the polishing pad for supplying slurry onto the polishing surface. The conditioner is disposed near the polishing pad for removing the residual particles over the polishing pad. By disposing a plurality of block on the conditioner, the conditioner can provide with flexibility so that the conditioner can sufficiently contact with the polishing surface for increasing the removal rate of residual particles.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to semiconductor technology about the chemical mechanical polishing equipment and the conditioner. More particularly, the present invention relates to the chemical mechanical polishing equipment and the conditioner, which can improve the removing-rate of residual particles on the polishing pad.  
         [0003]     2. Description of Related Art  
         [0004]     For the planarization technology, the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) technology has been widely used to have global planarization. In general, during the CMP process, the slurry with suspending abrasive particles and the polishing pad with proper elasticity and hardness are used, so as to achieve the planarization by a relative motion on the wafer surface.  
         [0005]      FIG. 1  is a side view, schematically illustrating the conventional CMP equipment.  FIG. 2  is a top view, schematically illustrating the conditioner and the polishing pad. In  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , the conventional CMP equipment  100  includes a polishing pad  110 , a holder  120 , a slurry supplier  130 , a conditioning  140 , and a gas supplier  150 .  
         [0006]     The polishing pad  110  has a polishing surface  112 . The holder  120  is implemented above the polishing pad  110  to hold a wafer  10 . This holder  120  carries the wafer  10  to have a relative motion between the surface of the wafer  10  and the polishing surface  112  of the polishing pad  110 , so as to polish the surface of the wafer  10 .  
         [0007]     The slurry supplier  130  is implemented above the polishing pad  110 . The slurry supplier  130  can supply the slurry  132 , which has suspending abrasive particles, to the polishing pad  110  for performing polishing process. The surface of the wafer  10  contacts with the abrasive particles of the slurry  132 , and the polishing effect is produced to move some surface material of the wafer  10 . The wafer surface then gradually becomes planar.  
         [0008]     The conditioning  140  is implemented around the polishing pad  110 . This conditioning  140  is composed of a supporting rod  142  and a bar-shape conditioning member  144  disposed on the supporting rod  142 , and the surface of the bar-shape conditioning member  144  has several diamond particles  146 . The conditioning  140  is suitable for repeated moving along a conditioning path A, such as an arc path, on the polishing surface  112 , and the bar-shape conditioning member  144  can clean the residual particles left on the polishing surface  112  during the polishing process (see  FIG. 2 ). In this manner, the produced residual particles on the polishing surface  112 , after a certain number of times in polishing wafers, are cleaned by the conditioning  140 , so as to maintain the uniform polishing of the polishing pad  110 .  
         [0009]     The gas supplier  150  is implemented under the polishing pad  110 . The gas supplier  150  can supply a gas to the bottom of the polishing pad  110 , and more particularly to the central region of the bottom of the polishing pad  110 . In this manner, the central region of the polishing pad  110  is more protruding than the peripheral region. As a result, the polishing pad  110  can keep the pressure exerted by the holder  120  and the conditioning  140 .  
         [0010]     However, the bar-shape conditioning member  144  of the conditioning  140  has the larger hardness relatively than the supporting rod  142 , and the bar-shape conditioning member  144  is disposed on the whole surface of the supporting rod  142 . This causes the loss of flexibility for the supporting rod. Therefore, when the gas supplier  150  supplies the gas to the bottom of the polishing pad  110 , causing the central region of the polishing pad  110  to be higher than the peripheral region, the supporting rod  142  is confined by the bar-shape conditioning member  144  and can not be changed in shape. In this situation, the bar-shape conditioning member  144  cannot fully contact onto the whole part of the polishing surface  112 . As a result, when the conditioner  140  repeatedly moves along the conditioning path A on the polishing surface  112 , residual particles at some region cannot be cleaned by the conditioning  140  because the polishing surface  112  does not contact with the bar-shape conditioning member  144  at the region. The polishing uniformity for the polishing pad  110  is reduced.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0011]     The invention provides a CMP equipment and the conditioner. The conditioning can have substantially full contact with the polishing pad to reduce the residual particles on the polishing pad, so as to improve the polishing uniformity  
         [0012]     The present invention provides a CMP equipment, including a polishing pad, a holder, a slurry supplier and a conditional. The holder is implemented above the polishing pad for holding a wafer. The slurry supplier is implemented above the polishing pad. The conditioning is implemented around the polishing pad. The conditioning can move along a conditioning path on the polishing surface. The conditioner includes a supporting rod and a plurality of conditioning blocks. The conditioning blocks, being disposed with the diamond particles, are disposed on the supporting rod, and a clearance exists between the conditioning blocks.  
         [0013]     The invention in another aspect provides a conditioner of a CMP equipment, suitable for repeatedly moving along a conditioning path on a polishing pad. The conditioner includes a supporting rod and a plurality of conditioning blocks. The conditioning blocks are disposed on the supporting rod, and a clearance exists between the conditioning blocks.  
         [0014]     For the CMP equipment of the invention, the conditioner is design with multiple conditioning blocks and a clearance exits between the condition blocks. This design allows the conditioner to be flexible and be substantially full contact with polishing pad, so as to reduce the residual rate of the residual particles on the polishing pad and further improve polishing uniformity. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]     The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.  
         [0016]      FIG. 1  is a side view, schematically illustrating a conventional CMP equipment.  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  is a top view, schematically illustrating a conventional conditioner and polishing pad.  
         [0018]      FIG. 3  is a side view, schematically illustrating a CMP equipment, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.  
         [0019]      FIG. 4  is a top view, schematically illustrating a conditioner and polishing pad, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.  
         [0020]      FIG. 5  is a top view, schematically illustrating a conditioner and polishing pad, according to another preferred embodiment of the invention.  
         [0021]      FIG. 6  is a top view, schematically illustrating a conditioner and polishing pad, according to further another preferred embodiment of the invention.  
         [0022]      FIGS. 7-9  are top views, schematically illustrating conditioners, according to further other preferred embodiments of the invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0023]      FIG. 3  is a side view, schematically illustrating a CMP equipment, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.  FIG. 4  is a top view, schematically illustrating a conditioner and polishing pad, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. In  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the CMP equipment  200  of the invention includes a polishing pad  210 , a holder  220 , a slurry supplier  230 , a conditioner  240 , and a gas supplier  250 .  
         [0024]     The polishing pad  210  has a polishing surface  212 . The holder  220  is implemented above the polishing pad  210  to hold a wafer  20 . This holder  220  carries the wafer  20  to have a relative motion between the surface of the wafer  20  and the polishing surface  212  of the polishing pad  210 , so as to polish the surface of the wafer  20 . The relative motion between the wafer  20  and the polishing pad  210  includes rotating motion and also the left-right shift motion of the wafer  20 .  
         [0025]     The slurry supplier  230  is implemented above the polishing pad  210 . The slurry supplier  230  can supply the slurry  232 , which has suspending abrasive particles, to the polishing pad  210  for performing polishing process. The surface of the wafer  20  contacts with the abrasive particles of the slurry  232 , and the polishing effect is produced to move some surface material of the wafer  20 . The wafer surface then gradually becomes planar.  
         [0026]     The conditioning  240  is implemented around the polishing pad  210 . This conditioning  240  is composed of a supporting rod  242  and multiple conditioning blocks  244 . The conditioning blocks  244  are implemented on the supporting rod  242  and a clearance  246  exits between the conditioning blocks  244 . In other words, the conditioning blocks  244  are not joined to each other but have a gap. The surface of the conditioning blocks  244  is disposed with several hard particles  248 , such as diamond particles. The conditioning  240  is suitable for repeated moving along a conditioning path B, such as an arc path, on the polishing surface  212 , and the conditioning blocks  244  can clean the residual particles left on the polishing surface  112  during the polishing process (see  FIG. 4 ).  
         [0027]     The gas supplier  250  is implemented under the polishing pad  210 . The gas supplier  250  can supply a gas to the bottom of the polishing pad  210 , and more particularly to the central region of the bottom of the polishing pad  210 . In this manner, the central region of the polishing pad  210  is more protruding than the peripheral region. As a result, the polishing pad  210  can keep the pressure exerted by the holder  220  and the conditioning  240 .  
         [0028]     Also referring to  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4 , since the conditioning  240  of the invention implements several conditioning blocks  240  on the supporting rod  242  and the clearance  246  exists between the conditioning blocks  244 , by this design, the supporting rod  244  can be flexible and changed in shape. When the gas supplier  250  supplies gas to the bottom of the polishing pad  210 , the central region of the polishing pad  210  is more protruding than the peripheral region. Even in this situation, the conditioner  240  can still have effectively full contact with the polishing pad  210 , so as to reduce the probability of the residual particles being left on the polishing pad  210 . The polishing uniformity for the polishing pad  210  can be further improved.  
         [0029]     In addition, in  FIG. 4 , the conditioning blocks  244  has the rectangular shape arranged in a row. In drawing, when the conditioner  240  moves along the conditioning path B on the polishing surface  212 , the residual particles on the polishing pad  210  at the region with respect to the clearance  246 , as indicated by the region M, may not be brushed. In other words, even though the conditioning blocks  244  with rectangular shape in row can allow the conditioner  240  to be flexible and have about full contact with the surface of the polishing pad  210 , the specific region on the polishing pad  210  may not be brushed. In order to prevent this situation from occurring, the invention proposed another aspects to arrange the conditioning blocks  244  on the conditioner  240 , so as to effectively remove the residual particles on the polishing surface  212  and achieve the cleaning effect. Details are described as follows.  
         [0030]      FIG. 5  is a top view, schematically illustrating a conditioner and polishing pad, according to another preferred embodiment of the invention. In  FIG. 5 , the rectangular shape for the conditioning blocks  244  is still used but the conditioning blocks are arranged in multiple rows. Two rows are taken as the example for descriptions. In the adjacent two rows, the conditioning blocks are alternatively shifted. By this arrangement, when the conditioner  240  moves on the conditioning path B on the polishing pad  210 , the region of the polishing pad  210  with respect to the clearance  246  can also be conditioned by the conditioning blocks  244 . In other words, when the conditioning block  240  moves along the conditioning path B on the polishing surface  212 , the conditioning blocks  244  of each row with the conditioning blocks  244  for the adjacent row can contact the whole surface of the polishing pad  210  during the polishing process.  
         [0031]      FIG. 6  is a top view, schematically illustrating a conditioner and polishing pad, according to further another preferred embodiment of the invention. In  FIG. 6 , the shape of the conditioning blocks  244  is, for example, designed with the rhombic shape in single row. By the change of shape for the conditioning blocks  244 , when the conditioner  240  moves along the conditioning path B on the polishing pad  210 , the region of the polishing pad  210  with respect to the clearance  246  can also be brushed by the conditioning blocks  244 . In more detailed description, when the conditioner  240  moves along the conditioning path B on the polishing surface  212 , each rhombic conditioning block  244  on the polishing surface  212  forms a region O. The current region O has an overlapping region (indicated by region P) with the region O formed from the adjacent conditioning block  244  on the polishing surface  212 . As a result, diamond blocks  244  can contact the whole surface of the polishing pad  210  during the motion.  
         [0032]      FIGS. 7-9  are top views, schematically illustrating conditioners, according to further other preferred embodiments of the invention. In  FIGS. 7-9 , the invention is limited to the rhombic shape. For example, the block shape can be triangle, as shown in  FIG. 7 , or other irregular shape, as shown in  FIGS. 8 and 9 . All of these conditioning blocks  244  can effectively contact the whole surface of the polishing pad during the motion. The removal rate for the residual particles can be improved. In addition, for the ordinary skilled artisans, the design for the rectangular shape of the conditioning blocks  244  in one row is the only design. Multiple rows can also be applied.  
         [0033]     In the foregoing descriptions, the CMP equipment of the invention at least has the advantages as follows:  
         [0034]     1. The conditioner is designed with multiple conditioning blocks and a clearance exists between the conditioning blocks. This allows the conditioner to be flexible and can have effectively full contact with the polishing pad. The probability of the residual particles being left on the polishing pad can be reduced. The polishing uniformity for the polishing pad can be further improved.  
         [0035]     2. The conditioner has multiple conditional blocks arranged in multiple rows by alternative shift. When the conditioner  240  moves along the conditioning path on the polishing pad, the residual particles on the polishing pad at the region with respect to the clearance can be brushed by the conditioning blocks. During conditioning motion, the conditioning blocks can contact the whole surface of the polishing pad, so as to effectively remove the residual particles.  
         [0036]     3. The conditioner has multiple conditional blocks in rhombic shape, triangular shape, or irregular shape, which are arranged in multiple rows. When the conditioner  240  moves along the conditioning path on the polishing pad, the residual particles on the polishing pad at the region with respect to the clearance can be brushed by the conditioning blocks. During motion, the conditioning blocks can contact the whole surface of the polishing pad, so as to effectively remove the residual particles.  
         [0037]     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention covers modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.