Abrasive Maintenance Member for Uniform Plating Contact
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Solution Overview
Problem
Variations in contact resistances between electric contacts and the seed layer on a substrate holder lead to non-uniform plating film thickness, exacerbated by foreign substances like copper oxide, which are difficult to remove with conventional methods.
Innovation Solution
A maintenance member with an abrasive body is used to contact and abrade the electric contacts in the substrate holder, ensuring consistent contact and removing adherent substances, thereby maintaining uniform voltage application and plating film thickness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If multiple electric contacts are used to uniformly apply voltage to the substrate surface, then voltage uniformity is improved, but contact resistance variations increase leading to non-uniform plating film thickness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing abrasive treatment on the electric contacts before the plating process to remove foreign substances and oxidation layers. This pre-treatment ensures low and consistent contact resistance at the start of plating, preventing the contact resistance variations that would otherwise lead to non-uniform plating film thickness during the process
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements self-service by integrating the abrasive treatment function directly into the substrate holder structure. The abrasive members are built-in components that automatically treat the electric contacts during substrate loading or idle periods, eliminating the need for separate manual maintenance operations and ensuring continuous contact resistance consistency
2Reliability
If chemical methods are used to remove copper or copper oxide from electric contacts, then contact resistance is reduced, but processing time and temperature requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces chemical cleaning methods with mechanical abrasive treatment. Instead of using chemicals that require high temperatures and long processing times to dissolve copper and copper oxide, the invention uses abrasive members to mechanically remove these substances, achieving the same contact resistance reduction effect much faster and under milder conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the cleaning method parameter from chemical dissolution to mechanical abrasion. This parameter change transforms the cleaning process from a time-consuming chemical reaction requiring elevated temperatures to a rapid mechanical removal process that operates at ambient conditions, significantly reducing processing time
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The abrasive maintenance member effectively reduces variations in contact resistance, ensuring uniform plating film thickness and improving the in-plane uniformity of the plating process by regularly cleaning and maintaining the electric contacts.
Implementation Method 1
an abrasive body having a shape corresponding to the substrate that is a holding target of the substrate holder, and disposed to come in contact with the electric contact when held by the substrate holder
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a maintenance member or the like capable of easily maintaining an electric contact in a substrate holder. It relates to a maintenance member to maintain a substrate holder including an electric contact configured to supply power to a substrate. The maintenance member includes an abrasive body having a shape corresponding to the substrate that is a holding target of the substrate holder, and disposed to come in contact with the electric contact when held by the substrate holder.