Insitu CMP Monitoring and Control via Pad Surface Friction and Wear Data Collection

With the semiconductor industry still prescribing and advancing the technological needs of circuit density and speed according to Moore’s Law, device designs have put more burdens on the technologists to find additional process margin in materials and geometries. And, the production requirements for High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) demand more intuitive and predictive capabilities in order to minimize process interruptions, excursions and yield loss. These documented needs continue to push the process and manufacturing engineers to find and implement robust monitoring systems.