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Dr. Norm V. Gitis, Center for Tribology, Inc., Campbell, CA, USA

ABSTRACT

Chemical-mechanical planarization, or CMP, has become the process of choice for modern semiconductor devices. Though this complicated technology has been known for a quarter of century, its large-scale proliferation into the fabs has happened recently. Within the last five – seven years the industry of CMP polishers has grown from less than a quarter billion to over a billion dollars a year, with over four thousand polishers installed in the fabs. There are reputable predictions that in 2004 the polisher market will be more than twice of its size in 2001 – 2002, with over twelve thousand polishing heads (spindles) working in the fabs. Metrology is one of the key technologies for the control and optimization of CMP processes and materials. In this article, the in-situ monitoring of both the pad and wafer is discussed.