Method for optimizing the control of metal CMP processes

摘要

The method of polishing metal layers on wafers comprises the steps of: using a chemical-mechanical polisher (50) to polish the metal layers (32) to remove material therefrom, inspecting indicator areas on the wafer to determine an amount of material removed from said areas (80), and adjusting the operation of the chemical-mechanical polisher (50) in response to the inspection of the indicator areas (80). The indicator areas (80) may include macroblocks comprised of a multitude of individual blocks (82). The wafer may be inspected by optically identifying the polishing state of the blocks (82) in the macroblock (80). Additionally, the process may be automated for mass production. A feedback loop to the polisher can be formed where data from optical inspection of macroblocks on a polished wafer can be immediately fed back to the polisher in order to adjust process parameters.