Patent ID: 6914000

Claim:
A polishing method for planarizing a film to be polished that is deposited on a wafer, comprising: a step (a) of establishing a polishing rate distribution of the film to be polished that is deposited on the wafer and a target film thickness distribution after polishing of the film to be polished; a step (b) of measuring a film thickness distribution before polishing of the film to be polished; a step (c) of calculating a predicted film thickness distribution after polishing of the film from the film thickness distribution before polishing and the polishing rate distribution; a step (d) of calculating a polishing time and a pressure against a polishing pad for each of a plurality of regions of the film to be polished, from the predicted film thickness distribution and the target film thickness distribution; and a step (e) of polishing while applying the pressure against the film to be polished during the polishing time; wherein the film to be polished has a top layer film located at an uppermost portion and a bottom layer film formed below the top layer film; in the step (a), a polishing rate distribution of the top layer film and a target film thickness distribution after polishing of the film to be polished are established; in the step (b), the film thickness distribution before polishing of the top layer film and the bottom layer film are measured; and in the step (c), the predicted film thickness distribution after polishing of the film to be polished is calculated from a film thickness distribution before polishing of the film to be polished, which has been converted based on a polishing rate ratio of the bottom layer film to the top layer film, and the polishing rate distribution of the top layer film.