Patents by Inventor Harry Q. Lee

Harry Q. Lee 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: 20230286107
    Abstract: A body is brought into contact with a polishing pad of a polishing system, a polishing liquid is supplied to the polishing pad, relative motion between the body and the polishing pad is generated while the body contacts the polishing pad, a signal from an in-situ eddy current monitoring system during the relative motion while the body contacts the polishing pad, generating, and mechanical vibrations in the polishing system are detected based on a signal from the in-situ eddy current monitoring system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2022
    Publication date: September 14, 2023
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Patrick A. Higashi, Hassan G. Iravani, Harry Q. Lee, Haosheng Wu, Eric T. Wu, Ningzhuo Cui, Jeonghoon Oh, Christopher Lai, Jun Qian
  • 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: 20230085787
    Abstract: Data received from an in-situ monitoring system includes, for each scan of a sensor, a plurality of measured signal values for a plurality of different locations on a layer. A thickness of a polishing pad is determined based on the data from the in-situ monitoring system. For each scan, a portion of the measured signal values are adjusted based on the thickness of the polishing pad. For each scan of the plurality of scans and each location of the plurality of different locations, a value is generated representing a thickness of the layer at the location. This includes processing the adjusted signal values using one or more processors configured by machine learning. A polishing endpoint is detected or a polishing parameter is modified based on the values representing the thicknesses at the plurality of different locations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Denis Ivanov, Harry Q. Lee, Jun Qian
  • Patent number: 11524382
    Abstract: Data received from an in-situ monitoring system includes, for each scan of a sensor, a plurality of measured signal values for a plurality of different locations on a layer. A thickness of a polishing pad is determined based on the data from the in-situ monitoring system. For each scan, a portion of the measured signal values are adjusted based on the thickness of the polishing pad. For each scan of the plurality of scans and each location of the plurality of different locations, a value is generated representing a thickness of the layer at the location. This includes processing the adjusted signal values using one or more processors configured by machine learning. A polishing endpoint is detected or a polishing parameter is modified based on the values representing the thicknesses at the plurality of different locations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Denis Ivanov, Harry Q. Lee, Jun Qian
  • Publication number: 20220371152
    Abstract: Determining a thickness of a layer on a wafer during a semiconductor process may include executing the process on the layer on the wafer; monitoring the wafer during the process with an in-situ spectrographic monitoring system to generate spectral data reflected from the wafer; applying a bandpass filter operation to the spectral data to generate filtered spectral data, where the bandpass filter may be configured to pass a frequency range corresponding to the layer on the wafer; and matching the filtered spectral data to a reference filtered spectral data, where the reference filtered spectral data may have been filtered using the bandpass filter operation, and the reference filtered spectral data may be associated with a thickness of the layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 20, 2021
    Publication date: November 24, 2022
    Applicant: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Benjamin Cherian, Dominic J. Benvegnu, Harry Q. Lee
  • 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 20210229234
    Abstract: A method of polishing a layer on the substrate at a polishing station includes the actions of monitoring the layer during polishing at the polishing station with an in-situ monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals for a plurality of different locations on the layer; generating, for each location of the plurality of different locations, an estimated measure of thickness of the location, the generating including processing the plurality of measured signals through a neural network; and at least one of detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on each estimated measure of thickness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2021
    Publication date: July 29, 2021
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Hassan G. Iravani, Denis Ivanov, Boguslaw A. Swedek, Shih-Haur Shen, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian
  • Patent number: 10994389
    Abstract: A method of polishing a layer on the substrate at a polishing station includes the actions of monitoring the layer during polishing at the polishing station with an in-situ monitoring system to generate a plurality of measured signals for a plurality of different locations on the layer; generating, for each location of the plurality of different locations, an estimated measure of thickness of the location, the generating including processing the plurality of measured signals through a neural network; and at least one of detecting a polishing endpoint or modifying a polishing parameter based on each estimated measure of thickness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kun Xu, Hassan G. Iravani, Denis Ivanov, Boguslaw A. Swedek, Shih-Haur Shen, Harry Q. Lee, Benjamin Cherian