ARRANGEMENT AND METHOD FOR MOUNTING A BACKING FILM TO A POLISH HEAD

the polish head is surrounded by floating or fixed retaining rings for preventing the wafer edges from intenser abrasion as compared with the inner parts, thus providing a uniform polishing across the wafer. The polishing movement commonly comprises a rotation of the polish head with the semiconductor wafer beneath around a first axis and a rotation of the table with the polish pad around a second axis.

Due to material fatigue caused, e.g., by particle contamina- tion the backing film has to be replaced with new material on a regular time basis. For most CMP apparatus this is performed by manually unmounting the polish head from the apparatus, removing the old backing film from the polish head and then manually sticking on a new backing film. Backing films consisting of e.g. polyurethane commonly have an adhesive layer on one of it's surfaces. The process of manually sticking on the backing film often involves an accidental enclose- ment of small air bubbles between the adhesive layer of the backing film and the backing plate, i.e. the polish head. These air bubbles lead to a located pressure on the wafer backside and therefore result in spots the wafer frontside, which are exposed relative to their surroundings. During polishing the removal of the wafer frontside surface material located in those exposed spots is rather intense and can lead to the damage of the corresponding chip, thereby decreasing the yield significantly.

Moreover, the adhesive layer varies in material characteristics, e.g. thickness, compressibility across the backing film. These non-uniformities in the backing film directly influence the uniformity of removal of material from the semi- cinductor wafer surface as well . Since the mounting of backing films depends on the skills of the operators, the disadvantages are still increased. The monitoring of the process in order to undertake corrections is rendered impossible in default of process reproducibility. It is therefore a primary object of this invention to increase the yield in semiconductor wafer manufacturing by improving the quality of the chemical mechanical polishing pro- cess.

This objective is solved by an arrangement and a method for mounting a backing film to a polish head for polishing disklike objects, preferably semiconductor wafers, the polish head having a surface for contacting said backing film, the surface being provided with- vacuum holes, the backing film having an adhesive layer, comprising a means for holding said polish head, and a means for exerting a pressure force on said surface of the polish head, when being covered by said backing film, and a means for heating the backing film.

Using the arrangement and the method according to the present invention the backing film comprising the adhesive layer is mounted to and sticked on the polish head by applying co- incidently pressure and temperature to the backing film. Under the influence of temperature the adhesive layer liquifies and can easily be redistributed between the backing film and the polish head by applying a pressure force onto the backing film. E.g., applying a uniform pressure force across the backing film surface a uniform adhesive layer thickness emerges straightforwardly.

Moreover, the occurrence of air bubbles that are enclosed between the adhesive layer and the polish head can be signifi- cantly reduced by applying a locally dependent pressure force, that starts to act at some location on the backing film and moves continuously across the backing film such that air bubbles are continuously shifted until they reach the edge of the backing film and thus eventually leave the adhe- sive layer. Another advantage arises from the reproducibility of the process. Since all parts of the arrangement can be monitored and controlled by a control unit, the influence of personal on the mounting process can be reduced and the quality of sticking on the adhesive layer can be improved.

While the means for exerting a pressure force on said surface of the polish head and the control unit can still be represented by an operator, these two ingredients are preferentially provided by some mechanics or logic, respectively. Ad- ditionally, an integration of the arrangement according to the present invention into a CMP-tool is possible as well .

The steps of applying a higher temperature by a means for heating and of applying a pressure force by a means for ex- erting a pressure force can be performed either coinciden- tally in parallel or subsequently. However, the viscous, or liquid characteristics of the adhesive layer due to the heat should be given, when the application of the pressure force onto the backing film is started.

Another advantageous aspect considers the use of a roller for exerting the pressure force onto the backing film. In particular the roller is efficient in removing the air bubbles between the adhesive layer and the polish head by leading them to the edge of the backing film and by redistributing melted adhesive material below the backing film. The roller surface is preferably made of rubber or silicon but any other material is possible as well. The roller is led by a roller guide, which is responsible for rolling the roller across the backing film thereby exerting a uniform pressure force at any location on the backing film.

In order to control the pressure force either the roller guide means or the means for holding the polish head can be adjusted in there height relative to the plane defined by the backing film. In case of the roller guide means being adjust-

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roller or the plate, can be heated and by heat transport the heat can be transferred to the backing film and the adhesive layer. A sensor enables the operators to control the temperature, which on the one hand side should be constant during the mounting procedure and on the other hand should not increase beyond a threshold value in order to prevent damaging the, e.g., polyurethane backing film material.

In a further aspect an additional sensor for measuring the pressure force is considered. Using e.g. a set of 3 sensors the distribution of pressure force across the backing film can be measured and compared in order to guarantee a uniform process .

A complete process control is enabled in a further aspect. Utilizing a control unit in the mode of closed loop control the motor, the means for heating and the means for exerting a pressure force can be controlled such as to run in a self- regulating configuration. This aspect gives the advantage of full process monitoring, especially further quality improvement by correcting and adjusting parameters.

In a further aspect the polish head as the source for the heat transferred to the backing film is considered. The ad- vantage is, that the adhesive layer can be directly addressed by the heat instead of a heat transport via the backing film.

In a further aspect, a means for aligning the backing film, i.e. the perforation of said backing film, with the vacuum holes, which have to penetrate the backing film in order to contact the, e.g., semiconductor wafer, is considered. Such a means, when incorporated into the present arrangement, accelerates the process of mounting the backing film, and therefore advantageously leads to a significant saving of time for manufacturing disklike objects, e.g. wafers. Further advantageous features, aspects and details of the invention are evident from the dependent claims.

The invention is now described with reference to embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein

figure 1 shows the process of chemical mechanical polishing using a polish head and a backing film, as it is state of the art;

figure 2 shows a first, simple embodiment illustrating the method according to the present invention using a workbench and an iron handled and controlled by an operator;

figure 3 shows a top view of a second embodiment according to the present invention;

figure 4 shows a side view (a) , and the arrangement of the closed loop control circuit (b) of the second embodiment according to the present invention;

figure 5 shows a side view of a third embodiment according to the present invention;

figure 6 shows the results of an experiment to verify uniformity after chemical mechanical polishing with different backing film mounting procedures.

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head 41 is adjustable in it's height by a pneumatic cylinder 51 ' ' in case the pressure force has to be varied. E.g., the polish head 1 can be lifted down in order to move roller 51 to a position above the center of the polish head 1, after which the polish head 1 can be raised again to the ironing level . Then, the process of ironing can be started moving the roller 51 from the center position outwards in order to remove air bubbles 101 from beneath the adhesive layer 4.

In order to liquify the adhesive layer for removing air bubbles 101 or material inhomogeneities the roller 51 comprises a means for heating 61 for heating the roller surface and thus the backing film. Corresponding rollers 51, e.g. made from silicone or rubber, are generally available from spe- cialized trade. Such rollers 51 are heatable up to 100°C, sufficient to melt or liquify the adhesive layer 4.

While the guide rail system is adjustable in its height at 4 different locations in order to achieve a plane for the roller axis that is parallel to the surface of polish head 1, the strength of the uniform pressure force can be controlled by a source for pressure 59 which acts on the pneumatic cylinder 51 ' ' . The pressure force that is actually exerted upon backing film 3 is measured by sensors 54, or load cells, which are connected to a control unit 5, as can be seen in figure 4b. The pressure force is commonly maintained within a range of pressure values, which is controlled by control unit 5. This is achieved by connecting control unit 5 and the energy supply to the pressure source 59, which acts on the means for exerting a pressure force, i.e. the pneumatic cylinder 51' '. There is also a temperature measuring sensor 62 sending signals to control unit 5 in order to maintain the heat transfer supplied by the means for heating 61 to be held constant or at least beneath a threshold value, to prevent the backing film 3 from heat damage. OJ OJ t t μ> μ> on O on o cπ o on

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These embodiments provide a means due to which air bubbles 101 and inhomogeneities of the adhesive layer for mounting backing films 3 are advantageously removed. Therefore, using this method and apparatus the uniformity will significantly be reduced, which is shown in figure 6. There, the thickness uniformity has been monitored for two different operators, which carried out several mounting processes either using the ironing procedure, i.e. the first embodiment described above, or the conventional procedure mounting the backing film 3 manually without heating. The 1-σ-uniformity value expressed in percent of total thickness reaches a value of 5,1 % for the conventional mounting mode, and a value of 3.5 % for mount the backing film 3 with the iron. Using the full advantage of the method and apparatus according to the present in- vention of the second and third embodiment an even stronger reduction in uniformity can be expected. Such reduction in uniformity ranges directly leads to a significant increase in semiconductor wafer yield and quality.

List of reference numerals

1 polish head

2 semiconductor wafer 3 backing film

4 adhesive layer 5, 5a, 5b control unit

11 polish table

12 polishing pad 13 slurry

21 vacuum holds

22 vacuum chamber

23 connection peace

41 means for holding a polish head 41 ' work bench

42 apparatus top plate

51 means for exerting a pressure force 51a roller

51b plate 51' iron

51' ' pneumatic cylinder

52 roller guide

53 guide rail system

54 sensor for measuring a pressure force, load cell 59 source of pressure

61 means for heating 61' iron, heated

62 sensor for measuring temperature

71 electromotor driving the roller guide 72 sensor for measuring roller velocity

101 airbubble