Patent ID: 7261832

Claim:
A method of mechanical or chemical-mechanical planarization of a plurality of microelectronic substrate assemblies, comprising: removing material from each of the plurality of substrate assemblies, and while each of the plurality of substrate assemblies, generating drag forces on the substrate assembly and a polishing pad by pressing the substrate assembly against the polishing pad at a pad/substrate interface and moving at least one of the substrate assembly and the pad relative to the other in a planarizing plane; and while removing material from one of the plurality of substrate assemblies: sensing the forces between the primary support member and a second support member that is coupled to the primary support member; collecting data points indicative of the drag force while planarizing the first substrate assembly against the polishing pad; processing the collected data points to generate a force-time relationship between the collected data points and time; performing a first regression on a downward slope in the force-time relationship to determine a first line; performing a second regression on a relatively flat slope in the force-time relationship to determine a second line; assessing a reference time at an intersection of the first line and the second line; calculating an estimated time for completion of the planarization process to be equal to the reference time plus an over-polish time; and utilizing the estimated time to determine when the planarization process of at least one of the plurality of substrate assemblies is terminated.