Patents by Inventor David Maxwell Gage

David Maxwell Gage has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240116152
    Abstract: A method of controlling polishing includes polishing a stack of adjacent conductive layers on a substrate, measuring with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system a sequence of characterizing values for the substrate during polishing, calculating a polishing rate from the sequence of characterizing values repeatedly during polishing, calculating one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters based on a current polishing rate using a first control algorithm for an initial time period, detecting a change in the polishing rate that indicates exposure of the underlying conductive layer, and calculating one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters based on the polishing rate using a different second control algorithm for a subsequent time period after detecting the change in the polishing rate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2023
    Publication date: April 11, 2024
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
  • Publication number: 20240014080
    Abstract: A method of polishing a substrate includes polishing a conductive layer on the substrate at a polishing station, monitoring the layer with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals values for a plurality of different locations on the layer, generating thickness measurements the locations, and detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on the thickness measurements. The conductive layer is formed of a first material having a first conductivity. Generating includes calculating initial thickness values based on the plurality of measured signals values and processing the initial thickness values through a neural network that was trained using training data acquired by measuring calibration substrates having a conductive layer formed of a second material having a second conductivity that is lower than the first conductivity to generated adjusted thickness values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2023
    Publication date: January 11, 2024
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
  • Patent number: 11865664
    Abstract: During polishing of a stack of adjacent layers, a plurality of instances of a profile control algorithm are executed on a controller with different instances having different values for a control parameter. A first instance receives a sequence of characterizing values from an in-situ monitoring system during an initial time period to control a polishing parameter, and a second instance receives the sequence of characterizing values during the initial time period and a subsequent time period to control the polishing parameter. Exposure of the underlying layer is detected based on the sequence of characterizing values from the in-situ monitoring system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
  • Patent number: 11850699
    Abstract: A method of controlling polishing includes polishing a stack of adjacent conductive layers on a substrate, measuring with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system a sequence of characterizing values for the substrate during polishing, calculating a polishing rate from the sequence of characterizing values repeatedly during polishing, calculating one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters based on a current polishing rate using a first control algorithm for an initial time period, detecting a change in the polishing rate that indicates exposure of the underlying conductive layer, and calculating one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters based on the polishing rate using a different second control algorithm for a subsequent time period after detecting the change in the polishing rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
  • Patent number: 11791224
    Abstract: A method of polishing a substrate includes polishing a conductive layer on the substrate at a polishing station, monitoring the layer with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals values for a plurality of different locations on the layer, generating thickness measurements the locations, and detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on the thickness measurements. The conductive layer is formed of a first material having a first conductivity. Generating includes calculating initial thickness values based on the plurality of measured signals values and processing the initial thickness values through a neural network that was trained using training data acquired by measuring calibration substrates having a conductive layer formed of a second material having a second conductivity that is lower than the first conductivity to generated adjusted thickness values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
  • Patent number: 11780045
    Abstract: A method of chemical mechanical polishing includes bringing a substrate having a conductive layer disposed over a semiconductor wafer into contact with a polishing pad, generating relative motion between the substrate and the polishing pad, monitoring the substrate with an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system as the conductive layer is polished to generate a sequence of signal values that depend on a thickness of the conductive layer, determining a sequence of thickness values for the conductive layer based on the sequence of signal values, and at least partially compensating for a contribution of conductivity of the semiconductor wafer to the signal values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Lu, David Maxwell Gage, Harry Q. Lee, Kun Xu, Jimin Zhang
  • Publication number: 20230290691
    Abstract: A method of polishing a substrate includes polishing a conductive layer on the substrate at a polishing station, monitoring the layer with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals values for a plurality of different locations on the layer, generating thickness measurements the locations, and detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on the thickness measurements. The conductive layer is formed of a first material having a first conductivity. Generating includes calculating initial thickness values based on the plurality of measured signals values and processing the initial thickness values through a neural network that was trained using training data acquired by measuring calibration substrates having a conductive layer formed of a second material having a second conductivity that is lower than the first conductivity to generated adjusted thickness values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 22, 2023
    Publication date: September 14, 2023
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
  • Patent number: 11658078
    Abstract: A method of polishing a substrate includes polishing a conductive layer on the substrate at a polishing station, monitoring the layer with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals values for a plurality of different locations on the layer, generating thickness measurements the locations, and detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on the thickness measurements. The conductive layer is formed of a first material having a first conductivity. Generating includes calculating initial thickness values based on the plurality of measured signals values and processing the initial thickness values through a neural network that was trained using training data acquired by measuring calibration substrates having a conductive layer formed of a second material having a second conductivity that is lower than the first conductivity to generated adjusted thickness values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
  • Publication number: 20210379723
    Abstract: A method of compensating for a contribution of conductivity of the semiconductor wafer to a measured trace by an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system includes storing or generating a modified reference trace. The modified reference trace represents measurements of a bare doped reference semiconductor wafer by an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system as modified by a neutral network. The substrate is monitored with an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system to generate a measured trace that depends on a thickness of the conductive layer, and at least a portion of the measured trace is applied to a neural network to generate a modified measured trace. An adjusted trace is generated, including subtracting the modified reference trace from the modified measured trace.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2018
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventors: Kun Xu, David Maxwell Gage, Harry Q. Lee, Denis Anatolyevich Ivanov, Hassan G. Iravani, Doyle E. Bennett, Kiran Lall Shrestha
  • Publication number: 20210379724
    Abstract: A method of controlling polishing includes polishing a stack of adjacent conductive layers on a substrate, measuring with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system a sequence of characterizing values for the substrate during polishing, calculating a polishing rate from the sequence of characterizing values repeatedly during polishing, calculating one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters based on a current polishing rate using a first control algorithm for an initial time period, detecting a change in the polishing rate that indicates exposure of the underlying conductive layer, and calculating one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters based on the polishing rate using a different second control algorithm for a subsequent time period after detecting the change in the polishing rate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
  • Publication number: 20210379721
    Abstract: During polishing of a stack of adjacent conductive layers on a substrate, an in-situ eddy current monitoring system measures sequence of characterizing values. A polishing rate is repeatedly calculated from the sequence of characterizing values repeatedly, one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters are repeatedly calculated based on a current polishing rate using a first control algorithm for an initial time period, a change in the polishing rate that meets at least one first predetermined criterion that indicates exposure of the underlying conductive layer is detected, and one or more adjustments for one or more polishing parameters are calculated based on the polishing rate using a different second control algorithm for a subsequent time period after detecting the change in the polishing rate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
  • Publication number: 20210379722
    Abstract: During polishing of a stack of adjacent layers, a plurality of instances of a profile control algorithm are executed on a controller with different instances having different values for a control parameter. A first instance receives a sequence of characterizing values from an in-situ monitoring system during an initial time period to control a polishing parameter, and a second instance receives the sequence of characterizing values during the initial time period and a subsequent time period to control the polishing parameter. Exposure of the underlying layer is detected based on the sequence of characterizing values from the in-situ monitoring system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
  • Publication number: 20210354265
    Abstract: A method of polishing a substrate includes polishing a conductive layer on the substrate at a polishing station, monitoring the layer with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals values for a plurality of different locations on the layer, generating thickness measurements the locations, and detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on the thickness measurements. The conductive layer is formed of a first material having a first conductivity. Generating includes calculating initial thickness values based on the plurality of measured signals values and processing the initial thickness values through a neural network that was trained using training data acquired by measuring calibration substrates having a conductive layer formed of a second material having a second conductivity that is lower than the first conductivity to generated adjusted thickness values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2021
    Publication date: November 18, 2021
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
  • Publication number: 20210358819
    Abstract: A method of polishing a substrate includes polishing a conductive layer on the substrate at a polishing station, monitoring the layer with an in-situ eddy current monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals values for a plurality of different locations on the layer, generating thickness measurements the locations, and detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on the thickness measurements. The conductive layer is formed of a first material having a first conductivity. Generating includes calculating initial thickness values based on the plurality of measured signals values and processing the initial thickness values through a neural network that was trained using training data acquired by measuring calibration substrates having a conductive layer formed of a second material having a second conductivity that is lower than the first conductivity to generated adjusted thickness values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2021
    Publication date: November 18, 2021
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
  • Publication number: 20190389028
    Abstract: A method of chemical mechanical polishing includes bringing a substrate having a conductive layer disposed over a semiconductor wafer into contact with a polishing pad, generating relative motion between the substrate and the polishing pad, monitoring the substrate with an in-situ electromagnetic induction monitoring system as the conductive layer is polished to generate a sequence of signal values that depend on a thickness of the conductive layer, determining a sequence of thickness values for the conductive layer based on the sequence of signal values, and at least partially compensating for a contribution of conductivity of the semiconductor wafer to the signal values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 13, 2019
    Publication date: December 26, 2019
    Inventors: Wei Lu, David Maxwell Gage, Harry Q. Lee, Kun Xu, Jimin Zhang
  • Patent number: 10350723
    Abstract: During polishing of a substrate a first signal is received from a first in-situ monitoring system and a second signal is received from a second in-situ monitoring system. A clearance time at which a conductive layer is cleared and a top surface of an underlying dielectric layer of the substrate exposed and determine based on the first signal. An initial value of the second signal at the determined clearance time is determined. An offset is added to the initial value to generate a threshold value, and a polishing endpoint is triggered when the second signal crosses the threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Shih-Haur Shen, Jianshe Tang, Jimin Zhang, David Maxwell Gage
  • Publication number: 20180079048
    Abstract: During polishing of a substrate a first signal is received from a first in-situ monitoring system and a second signal is received from a second in-situ monitoring system. A clearance time at which a conductive layer is cleared and a top surface of an underlying dielectric layer of the substrate exposed and determine based on the first signal. An initial value of the second signal at the determined clearance time is determined. An offset is added to the initial value to generate a threshold value, and a polishing endpoint is triggered when the second signal crosses the threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2017
    Publication date: March 22, 2018
    Inventors: Shih-Haur Shen, Jianshe Tang, Jimin Zhang, David Maxwell Gage
  • Patent number: 9073169
    Abstract: A method of controlling polishing includes polishing a first substrate having an overlying layer on an underlying layer or layer structure. During polishing, the substrate is monitored with an in-situ monitoring system to generate a sequence of measurements. The measurements are sorted into groups, each group associated with a different zone of a plurality of zones on the substrate. For each zone, a time at which the overlying layer is cleared is determined based on the measurements from the associated group. At least one second adjusted polishing pressure for at least zone is calculated based on a pressure applied in the at least one zone during polishing the substrate, the time for the at least one zone, and the time for another zone. A second substrate is polished using the at least one adjusted polishing pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Ingemar Carlsson, Feng Q. Liu, David Maxwell Gage, You Wang, Dominic J. Benvegnu, Boguslaw A. Swedek, Yuchun Wang, Pierre Fontarensky, Wen-Chiang Tu, Lakshmanan Karuppiah
  • Publication number: 20140308814
    Abstract: In one aspect, a substrate chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) method for copper-layered substrates is disclosed. The CMP method includes providing a substrate having a surface of copper, and pre-treating the surface containing copper with a first composition containing a carrier liquid, a corrosion inhibitor, and an oxidizer in a pre-treatment phase, and thereafter, polishing the surface with a slurry composition in a main polishing phase. CMP systems and compositions for CMP are provided, as are numerous other aspects.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2013
    Publication date: October 16, 2014
    Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc
    Inventors: David Maxwell Gage, You Wang, Zhihong Wang, Wen-chiang Tu
  • Publication number: 20140199842
    Abstract: In one aspect, a substrate chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) method for substrates is disclosed. The CMP method includes providing a substrate having a surface of silicon and copper such as through silicon via regions containing copper, and polishing the surface with a slurry containing very small silicon nanoparticles (e.g., having an average diameter less than 8 nanometers). CMP systems and slurries for CMP are provided, as are numerous other aspects.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Inventors: Vishwas V. Hardikar, Zhihong Wang, David Maxwell Gage, Thomas E. Gartner, III