EMERGING DEVELOPMENTS IN CMP FOR SEMICONDUCTOR PLANARIZATION .2.

The demand for manufacturing-ready systems and methods has fostered th e development of a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) infrastructure that did not exist as little as five years ago. Several CMP-related to pics were discussed in the April 1995 issue of Solid State Technology. The following article discusses issues related to the manufacturing i mplementation of CMP for planarization: the logistics associated with volume production of a CMP process sector, design considerations for C MP integration, technologies being developed for endpoint detection an d other CMP-specific metrology, and slurry distribution and its dispos al.