Patent ID: 8388409

Claim:
A polishing method, comprising: polishing a substrate having a layer deposited on a surface of the substrate in a regular polishing process, said regular polishing process comprising polishing the substrate until an in-situ process monitor senses predetermined layer thickness of the substrate and, then, over-polishing the substrate for a predetermined time which corresponds to a difference between a desired layer thickness and the predetermined layer thickness sensed by said in-situ process monitor; measuring a layer thickness of the substrate after said regular polishing process as a first thickness using an in-line film thickness measuring device to detect an unfinished polishing portion; polishing the substrate in an additional polishing process to remove the unfinished polishing portion of the layer if said in-line film thickness measuring device detects the unfinished polishing portion; measuring a layer thickness of the polished substrate after said additional polishing process as a second thickness with said in-line film thickness measuring device; calculating a polishing rate of said additional polishing process from said first thickness, said second thickness and an amount of polishing time of said additional polishing process; storing a database with first data that comprises at least one of the layer thickness, the polishing time and the polishing rate of said additional polishing process; and extending an over-polishing time, based on the first data, used to polish a subsequent substrate.