Abstract: A method of electroless plating for processing a plating surface to form a barrier layer being capable of uniformly forming a barrier layer and reducing the consumption of a processing solution, comprising a step of feeding a processing solution used in at least one of the pre-processing steps of the electroless plating and the electroless plating step to the plating surface for puddling treatment, or, using a processing solution at least containing, with respect to one mole of a first metallic material supplying a main ingredient of the barrier layer, three or more moles of a completing agent and three or more moles of reducing agent and having a pH value adjusted to 9 or more and stored in an atmosphere of an inert gas or ammonia gas, and a corresponding electroless plating apparatus.

Abstract: A polishing method executes those serial processes described below: a theoretically ideal amount of removable object is computed; based on the comparison to the profile when actually processing a polishing object via a chemical-mechanical polishing process, a proportional constant k is sought, which is then utilized as a fixed value; a proper polishing time t is computed; the proper polishing time t is then input into a controller in conjunction with other parameters; by way of feeding a control signal CTL1 to an X-axis servo motor, the controller properly controls X-axis directional velocity of a polishing object; the controller also delivers another control signal CTL2 to a main-shaft spindle motor to control the number of its rotation and delivers another control signal CTL3 to a Z-axis servo motor to control Z-axial directional positioning of a processing head.

Abstract: A method of production and a method of polishing a semiconductor device and a polishing apparatus, capable of easily flattening an initial unevenness of a metal film, excellent in efficiency of removal of an excess metal film, and capable of suppressing damage to an interlayer insulation film below the metal film when flattening the metal film by polishing, the polishing method including the steps of interposing an electrolytic solution including a chelating agent between a cathode member and the copper film, applying a voltage between the cathode member used as a cathode and the copper film used as an anode to oxidize the surface of the copper film and forming a chelate film of the oxidized copper, selectively removing a projecting portion of the chelate film corresponding to the shape of the copper film to expose the projecting portion of the copper film at its surface, and repeating the above chelate film forming step and the above chelate film removing step until the projecting portion of the copper film

Abstract: A polishing wheel is pushed up and down in the Z-axis direction owing to a wafer surface shape. And the polishing amount depends on the height of protrusions on a wafer surface. Where a spindle is a rigid body in the Z-axis direction, the pressing force of the polishing wheel caused by vertical movement of a tool varies depending on the position on a wafer and hence polishing is not performed uniformly To solve this problem, the spindle is provided with a Z-axis parallel leaf spring mechanism. Push-up and push-down actions of the polishing wheel are absorbed by displacement of the parallel leaf spring mechanism. This enables uniform polishing. Since the tool can be hardened, the flatness can also be improved.

Abstract: A polishing wheel is pushed up and down in the Z-axis direction owing to a wafer surface shape. And the polishing amount depends on the height of protrusions on a wafer surface. Where a spindle is a rigid body in the Z-axis direction, the pressing force of the polishing wheel caused by vertical movement of a tool varies depending on the position on a wafer and hence polishing is not performed uniformly. To solve this problem, the spindle is provided with a Z-axis parallel leaf spring mechanism. Push-up and push-down actions of the polishing wheel are absorbed by displacement of the parallel leaf spring mechanism. This enables uniform polishing. Since the tool can be hardened, the flatness can also be improved.

Abstract: Disclosed is a polishing system used for polishing a surface to be polished of an object to be polished by a polishing pad, which is capable of improving uniformity of the surface to be polished of the object to be polished by positively, accurately adjusting a polishing pressure, and a polishing method using the polishing system. Concretely, the surface to be polished of a wafer as the object to be polished is polished by relatively moving, along a plane, a polishing surface of the rotating polishing pad and the surface to be polished of the wafer in slide-contact with each other, and adjusting a pressing force applied from the polishing pad to the wafer in accordance with a polishing pressure previously set depending on a relative-positional relationship between the polishing surface of the polishing pad and the surface to be polished of the wafer.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a polishing device including a polishing plate having an upper surface on which a polishing pad is attached, a polishing head having a lower surface opposed to an upper surface of the polishing pad on the polishing plate, for holding a substrate to be polished on the lower surface, and a pressure source for applying a polishing pressure to the polishing head, whereby the substrate held by the polishing head is pressed against the upper surface of the polishing pad under the polishing pressure applied from the pressure source to perform polishing of the substrate. The polishing head is provided with a contact pressure adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting an in-plane contact pressure of the substrate against the upper surface of the polishing pad on the polishing plate at every area of the substrate. Accordingly, the uniformity and the planarity in the plane of the substrate surface to be polished can be improved with a high throughput.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a polishing device including a polishing plate having an upper surface on which a polishing pad is attached, a polishing head having a lower surface opposed to an upper surface of the polishing pad on the polishing plate, for holding a substrate to be polished on the lower surface, and a pressure source for applying a polishing pressure to the polishing head, whereby the substrate held by the polishing head is pressed against the upper surface of the polishing pad under the polishing pressure applied from the pressure source to perform polishing of the substrate. The polishing head is provided with a contact pressure adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting an in-plane contact pressure of the substrate against the upper surface of the polishing pad on the polishing plate at every area of the substrate. Accordingly, the uniformity and the planarity in the plane of the substrate surface to be polished can be improved with a high throughput.

Abstract: Disclosed is a polishing method including the step of: polishing a surface of a member to be polished by rotating and sliding an abrasive wheel holding fixed abrasive grains on the surface of the wheel while supplying free abrasive grains to the surface of the member to be polished; wherein the abrasive wheel is formed by binding the fixed abrasive grains with a soft binder and a pore forming agent. This polishing method is effective to obtain a high flatness of a polished surface and improve surface characteristics of the polished surface, and also to obtain a high continuous-workability by stably keeping a polishing ability for a long period of time.

Abstract: An apparatus for correcting an orientation and a geometry of a front surface of a semiconductor wafer and holding the wafer in a state in which the adjusted surface state is kept. The apparatus has a chuck for holding a wafer; a surface measuring means for measuring a state of a front surface of the wafer; a surface adjusting means including a plurality of surface correcting portions vertically movable for partially deforming the holding portion, whereby the surface of the holding portion is deformed by independent actions of the surface correcting portions; and a tilting portion as an orientation adjusting means for adjusting a tilting angle of the front surface of the wafer with respect to the center axis thereof and an orientation of the tilting.

Abstract: A light-deflecting cover for an optical pick-up apparatus has a reflecting portion disposed within a light path of a light beam projected from a light source or light returning from outside the apparatus for deflecting an optical beam for bending the light path. The light deflecting part of the cover is provided with a light absorbing portion for removing unnecessary light which does not contribute to the operating characteristics of optical equipment within which the light deflecting part is provided.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a polishing including a polishing plate having an upper surface on which a polishing pad is attached, a polishing head having a lower surface opposed to an upper surface of the polishing pad on the polishing plate, for holding a substrate to be polished on the lower surface, and a pressure source for applying a polishing pressure to the polishing head, whereby the substrate held by the polishing head is pressed against the upper surface of the polishing pad under the polishing pressure applied from the pressure source to perform polishing of the substrate. The polishing head is provided with a contact pressure adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting an in-plane contact pressure of the substrate against the upper surface of the polishing pad on the polishing plate at every area of the substrate. Accordingly, the uniformity and the planarity in the plane of the substrate surface to be polished can be improved with a high throughput.