METHOD FOR CHARACTERISING AND SIMULATING A CHEMICAL-MECHANICAL POLISHING PROCESS

摘要

The invention relates to a method for characterising and simulating a CMP process, according to which a substrate to be polished, in particular a semiconductor wafer is pressed onto a polishing cloth and rotated in relation to the latter for a specified polishing period. Said method comprises the following steps: a) determination of a set of process parameters, in particular of the contact force and the relative rotational speed of the substrate and the polishing cloth; b) provision and characterisation of a test substrate comprising test patterns with different structural thicknesses for the specified process parameters; c) determination of a set of model parameters for simulating the CMP process from the results of the characterisation of the test substrate; d) determination of layout parameters of the substrate to be polished; e) determination of a requirement profile relative to the CMP process result for the substrate to be polished; and f) simulation of the CMP processes for determining the polishing period necessary to fulfil the requirement profile. The invention also relates to a method for operating a test device for semiconductor components.