Multi-Sensor Monitoring System in Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) for Correlations with Process Issues

In this paper, three different sensors were used to measure multi-scale phenomena in chemical mechanical planarization. A piezoelectric force sensor, Hall effect sensor and acoustic emission sensor (AE) were installed in CMP equipment and the signals were measured simultaneously during the polishing process. The results showed that the sensors measuring frictional behaviour, such as the Hall effect sensor and force transducer, produced a clear end point signal in the case of the friction characteristics are distinguishable for each material. Also, if there is difference in hardness between materials, then a sharp end point signal is detected with the AE sensor even though the friction characteristic is similar between the two materials. Therefore, using multi-sensors having different bandwidths is complementary for not only process monitoring but also end point detection.