Abstract: Methods and apparatus for controlling a material removal rate at an edge of a wafer during a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a CMP apparatus includes a wafer, a polishing pad to polish a surface of the wafer, a polishing pad structure to rotate the polishing pad over the surface of the wafer, and a wafer chuck to support the wafer. The wafer chuck directly supports a first portion of the wafer that is in physical contact with the wafer chuck and indirectly supports a second portion of the wafer that is not in physical contact with the wafer chuck. The second portion of the wafer is supported by the wafer chuck using a bearing surface arranged between the second portion of the wafer and the wafer chuck.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for substantially continuously measuring the surface of a wafer during a polishing process are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, an apparatus includes a wafer support table that supports a wafer, a polishing pad that polishes a surface of the wafer, and a polishing pad structure that rotates the polishing pad over the surface of the wafer. The apparatus also includes a measuring device which is capable of continuously measuring the surface of the wafer during polishing of the surface of the wafer.

Abstract: A sputter coating apparatus particularly useful for applying sputtered films, particularly reactively produced sputtered films such as titanium nitride, onto semiconductor wafers, is provided with a collimator that includes a grid of vanes for restricting the paths available for the sputtered material to take from the target toward the wafer. A flow of fresh reactive gas is maintained on the surface of the wafer by gas outlets carried by vanes of the collimator. The outlets are supplied with the gas through passages provided in the vanes, so that the gas supply does not contribute to the shadowing of the sputtered material from the wafer except in accordance with the intended shadowing for which the collimator is provided.