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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7699972 | Method and apparatus for evaluating polishing pad conditioning A method and apparatus for evaluating a conditioned electrochemical mechanical polishing pad are provided. A polishing pad is conditioned using a first set of process conditions. A sheet wafer and a residue wafer are polished on the polishing pad. The removal rates ... | 04/20/2010 |
| 7560018 | Semiconductor electrochemical etching processes employing closed loop control Methods and apparatus for providing closed-loop control over an electrochemical etching process during porous semiconductor fabrication enhance the quality of the porous semiconductor materials, especially those contained structural variations (such as porosity or m... | 07/14/2009 |
| 7407433 | Pad characterization tool Tools and methods for in-situ characterizing of a surface of a polishing pad are described. A characterization tool is integrated with polishing tool so that the polishing pad can be monitored in-situ. The characterization tool and the polishing pad can be rotated o... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7377836 | Versatile wafer refining Methods of refining using a plurality of refining elements are discussed. A refining apparatus having refining elements that can be smaller than the workpiece being refined are disclosed. New refining methods, refining apparatus, and refining elements disclosed. Met... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7335470 | Compilations of nucleic acids and arrays and methods of using them In one aspect the invention provides compilations of nucleic acids, articles of manufacture, e.g., arrays, and methods for the detection of chromosomal abnormalities, such as a chromosomal aneuploidies, deletions, amplifications, and the like, and the diagnosis or p... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7244347 | Method and system to provide electrical contacts for electrotreating processes Systems and methods to provide electrical contacts to a workpiece to facilitate electrotreating processes, including electroplating and electroetching processes are presented. ... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7244513 | Stain-etched silicon powder The present invention is for a porous silicon powder comprising silicon particles wherein the outermost layers of said particles are porous. The present invention is also directed to a method of making this porous silicon powder using a stain etch method. The presen... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7239121 | Quantative extraction of micro particles from metallic disk spacer rings Embodiments of the present invention include a method for quantitatively detecting embedded particles of a disk spacer ring comprising. The method includes dissolving a layer of a disk spacer ring into a liquid solution, the disk spacer ring layer comprising embedde... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7211178 | Fixture for electro-chemical machining On a fixture for electro-chemical machining for the production of long, curved cavities (11) in a component (12), the working electrode (3) of the electro-chemical machining tool (1) is connected to a guide body (1a) which m... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7211186 | Method and system to provide electrical contacts for electrotreating processes Systems and methods to provide electrical contacts to a workpiece to facilitate electrotreating processes, including electroplating and electroetching processes are presented. ... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7186322 | Methods of producing and polishing semiconductor device and polishing apparatus 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... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7160432 | Method and composition for polishing a substrate Polishing compositions and methods for removing conductive materials from a substrate surface are provided. In one aspect, a method is provided for processing a substrate to remove conductive material disposed over narrow feature definitions formed in a substrate at... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7136173 | Method and apparatus for end-point detection An apparatus for detecting the end-point of an electropolishing process of a metal layer formed on a wafer (1004) includes an end-point detector. The end-point detector is disposed adjacent the nozzle (1008) used to electropolish the wafer. In one embo... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7128825 | Method and composition for polishing a substrate Polishing compositions and methods for removing conductive materials from a substrate surface are provided. In one aspect, a composition includes an acid based electrolyte system, one or more chelating agents, one or more corrosion inhibitors, one or more inorganic ... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7115510 | Method for electrochemically processing a workpiece The present invention relates to a process for forming a near-planar or planar layer of a conducting material, such as copper, on a surface of a workpiece using an ECMPR technique. The process preferably uses at least two separate plating solution chemistries to for... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7104866 | Machining device According to a machining device for machining a conductive workpiece (W) by a conductive (T), when the tool (T) contacts the workpiece (W) in machining, there is formed a closed-circuit (C) connecting the tool (T), the workpiece (W), a brush (315), a conducto... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7077721 | Pad assembly for electrochemical mechanical processing Embodiments of a processing pad assembly for processing a substrate are provided. The processing pad assembly includes an upper layer having a processing surface and an electrode having a top side coupled to the upper layer and a bottom side opposite the top side. A... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7067048 | Method to improve the control of electro-polishing by use of a plating electrode an electrolyte bath A method and apparatus which uses a plating electrode in an electrolyte bath. The plating electrode works to purify an electrolyte polishing solution during the electro-polishing process. Preferably, the plating electrode is employed in a closed loop feedback system... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7042570 | Porous thin film time-varying reflectivity analysis of samples A method for analyzing gaseous or liquid samples is provided. Samples are interacted with pores of a porous thin film. A time-varying response of reflectivity is obtained from the surface of the porous thin film during the interaction. One or more analytes forming t... | 05/09/2006 |
| 7033466 | Electrochemical stripping using single loop control The present invention relates to a control loop to be used in a system for stripping a coating from a part. The control loop comprises an electrometer for measuring a potential between the part and a reference electrode and generating a voltage output signal, an ope... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7026255 | Method and device for photo-electrochemically etching a semiconductor sample, especially gallium nitride In a method for photo-electrochemical etching of a semiconductor sample, the semiconductor sample is brought in contact with an electrolyte liquid. The contact area formed thereby is illuminated through the electrolyte liquid with UV light. The photo-current created... | 04/11/2006 |
| 7022216 | Electrolytic etching of metal layers A method for selectively removing a layer of electrolytically dissoluble metal such as copper overplate from a substrate such as a low-k dielectric comprising: providing a substrate bearing on a major surface thereof a layer of ele... | 04/04/2006 |
| 6968290 | Electrochemical machining tool assembly and method of monitoring electrochemical machining An electrochemical machining tool assembly includes first and second tools that are spaced apart from one another so that a workpiece can be located therebetween. The assembly also includes a first ultrasonic transducer mounted in the first tool and a second ultraso... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6939508 | Method of manufacturing net-shaped bimetallic parts A method for manufacturing a net-shaped bimetallic part that includes the steps of: providing a tool that defines a cavity and a tooling surface; depositing a layer of an environmental metal material onto the tooling surface; filling the cavity in the tool with a po... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6866763 | Method and system monitoring and controlling film thickness profile during plating and electroetching The present invention provides method of adjusting a thickness profile of a top metal layer of a workpiece using a processing solution. A thickness profile control member is included that has at least first and second regions that will allow for processing at respec... | 03/15/2005 |
| 6837983 | Endpoint detection for electro chemical mechanical polishing and electropolishing processes Systems and methods for detecting the endpoint of a polishing step. In general, an electropolishing system is provided with a power supply configured to deliver a current through an electrolytic solution. Signal characteristics of the signal provided by the power su... | 01/04/2005 |
| 6808617 | Electrolytic polishing method A polishing method and polishing apparatus able to easily flatten an initial unevenness with an excellent efficiency of removal of excess copper film and suppress damage to a lower interlayer insulation film, and a plating method and plating apparatus able to deposi... | 10/26/2004 |
| 6783658 | Electropolishing method A target material is electropolished by applying a voltage between an anode electrode and a counter electrode while bringing the anode electrode into contact with the surface of the target material. The anode electrode is formed of an electrode material having a cur... | 08/31/2004 |
| 6756307 | Apparatus for electrically planarizing semiconductor wafers The present invention pertains to apparatus and methods for electroplanarization of metal surfaces having both recessed and raised features, over a large range of feature sizes. The invention accomplishes this by use of a flexible planar cathode and a spacing pad th... | 06/29/2004 |
| 6752916 | Electrochemical planarization end point detection A method for determining an end point of a planarization process for removing metal from a surface of a substrate submerged in an electrolytic solution or slurry. A first electrode is provided which is operable to contact the surface of the substrate, such as a work... | 06/22/2004 |
| 6723223 | Electrochemical machining method with optimal machining pulse duration For an electromechanical machining of a work piece there is an optimal pulse duration for the machining pulses corresponding to the maximum copying accuracy. Such an optimal pulse duration corresponds to a certain value of the gap. By alternating the machining pulse... | 04/20/2004 |
| 6632348 | Wire etching device and method A device and method for etching a wire to manufacture it into a tip for a scanning probe microscope or the like. The wire etching device generates a voltage signal for determining the level of a wire etching voltage, and applies the etching voltage of the... | 10/14/2003 |
| 6620307 | Method for a removal of cathode depositions by means of bipolar pulses A method for on-line removal of cathode depositions during electrochemical process. The process control unit (30) is arranged to alternate the unipolar machining voltage pulses U1 with the voltage pulses of opposite polarity U2 to the work piece (2) and t... | 09/16/2003 |
| 6565734 | Electrochemical process using current density controlling techniques An electrochemical process using current density controlling techniques is disclosed. In the electrochemical process of this invention, a carbon cathode rod activated with a negative voltage and an electrode activated with a positive voltage are sunk into... | 05/20/2003 |
| 6454930 | Procedure and device for the three-dimensional processing of a work piece by means of electroerosive or electrochemical machining A procedure and a device for the electroerosive or electrochemical machining of bent surfaces of a work piece (2) by means of an electrode (1; 1'; 1") which is generally independent of the form of the bent surface, in which the electrode (1; 1'; 1") is le... | 09/24/2002 |
| 6447668 | Methods and apparatus for end-point detection An apparatus for detecting the end-point of an electropolishing process of a metal layer formed on a wafer includes an end-point detector. The end-point detector is disposed adjacent the nozzle used to electropolish the wafer. In one embodiment, the end-p... | 09/10/2002 |
| 6440295 | Method for electropolishing metal on semiconductor devices An electropolishing apparatus for polishing a metal layer formed on a wafer (31) includes an electrolyte (34), a polishing receptacle (100), a wafer chuck (29), a fluid inlet (5, 7, 9), and at least one cathode (1, 2, 3). The wafer chuck (29) holds and po... | 08/27/2002 |
| 6440291 | Controlled induction by use of power supply trigger in electrochemical processing Methods and apparatus are used for triggering and controlling an initial induction period in which a substrate is immersed in an electrochemical bath prior to actual electrochemical processing. This is accomplished by sensing a change in cell potential up... | 08/27/2002 |
| 6428681 | System and method for reversing electrolyte flow during an electropolishing operation A pipe electrochemical polishing system (10, 10a) for in place polishing of a pipe (28(has provision for detecting the instant position of a cathode (14) within the pipe (28) such as cable marks (52) and cable mark sensor (50), an infrared camera (60), he... | 08/06/2002 |
| 6398942 | Electrochemical machining process for fabrication of cylindrical microprobe Disclosed is an electrochemical machining process for fabrication of cylindrical microprobes, which is effected by the tool acting as the cathode against the workpiece acting as the anode, taking advantage of a chemical reaction occurring between the work... | 06/04/2002 |
