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).
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Publication number: 20240116152Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2023Publication date: April 11, 2024Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
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Publication number: 20240014080Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: September 21, 2023Publication date: January 11, 2024Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
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Patent number: 11865664Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: June 7, 2021Date of Patent: January 9, 2024Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
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Patent number: 11850699Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: June 7, 2021Date of Patent: December 26, 2023Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
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Patent number: 11791224Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: May 11, 2021Date of Patent: October 17, 2023Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
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Patent number: 11780045Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: June 13, 2019Date of Patent: October 10, 2023Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Wei Lu, David Maxwell Gage, Harry Q. Lee, Kun Xu, Jimin Zhang
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Publication number: 20230290691Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: May 22, 2023Publication date: September 14, 2023Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
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Patent number: 11658078Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: May 11, 2021Date of Patent: May 23, 2023Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
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Publication number: 20210379723Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: September 26, 2018Publication date: December 9, 2021Inventors: Kun Xu, David Maxwell Gage, Harry Q. Lee, Denis Anatolyevich Ivanov, Hassan G. Iravani, Doyle E. Bennett, Kiran Lall Shrestha
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Publication number: 20210379724Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: June 7, 2021Publication date: December 9, 2021Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
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Publication number: 20210379721Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: June 7, 2021Publication date: December 9, 2021Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
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Publication number: 20210379722Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: June 7, 2021Publication date: December 9, 2021Inventors: Kun Xu, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian, David Maxwell Gage
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Publication number: 20210354265Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: May 11, 2021Publication date: November 18, 2021Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
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Publication number: 20210358819Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: May 11, 2021Publication date: November 18, 2021Inventors: Kun Xu, Kiran Lall Shrestha, Doyle E. Bennett, David Maxwell Gage, Benjamin Cherian, Jun Qian, Harry Q. Lee
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Publication number: 20190389028Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: June 13, 2019Publication date: December 26, 2019Inventors: Wei Lu, David Maxwell Gage, Harry Q. Lee, Kun Xu, Jimin Zhang
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Patent number: 10350723Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: September 13, 2017Date of Patent: July 16, 2019Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Shih-Haur Shen, Jianshe Tang, Jimin Zhang, David Maxwell Gage
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Publication number: 20180079048Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: September 13, 2017Publication date: March 22, 2018Inventors: Shih-Haur Shen, Jianshe Tang, Jimin Zhang, David Maxwell Gage
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Patent number: 9073169Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: August 31, 2011Date of Patent: July 7, 2015Assignee: 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
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Publication number: 20140308814Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: April 15, 2013Publication date: October 16, 2014Applicant: Applied Materials, IncInventors: David Maxwell Gage, You Wang, Zhihong Wang, Wen-chiang Tu
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Publication number: 20140199842Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: December 30, 2013Publication date: July 17, 2014Inventors: Vishwas V. Hardikar, Zhihong Wang, David Maxwell Gage, Thomas E. Gartner, III