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: 20120276662
    Abstract: A method of chemical mechanical polishing a substrate includes polishing a plurality of discrete separated metal features of a layer on the substrate at a polishing station, using an eddy current monitoring system to monitor thickness of the metal features in the layer, and controlling pressures applied by a carrier head to the substrate during polishing of the layer at the polishing station based on thickness measurements of the metal features from the eddy current monitoring system to reduce differences between an expected thickness profile of the metal feature and a target profile.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2011
    Publication date: November 1, 2012
    Inventors: Hassan G. Iravani, Kun Xu, Boguslaw A. Swedek, Ingemar Carlsson, Shih-Haur Shen, Wen-Chiang Tu, David Maxwell Gage
  • Publication number: 20120276817
    Abstract: A method of chemical mechanical polishing a substrate includes polishing a metal layer on the substrate at a polishing station, monitoring thickness of the metal layer during polishing at the polishing station with an eddy current monitoring system, and halting polishing when the eddy current monitoring system indicates that residue of the metal layer is removed from an underlying layer and a top surface of the underlying layer is exposed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2011
    Publication date: November 1, 2012
    Inventors: Hassan G. Iravani, Kun Xu, Boguslaw A. Swedek, Ingemar Carlsson, Shih-Haur Shen, Wen-Chiang Tu, David Maxwell Gage, James C. Wang
  • Publication number: 20120064801
    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: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 15, 2012
    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