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Eddy current sensors have been widely used in the field of micro- and nano-measurements. The detection circuit is a key part of eddy current sensors. In particular, the electrical parameters in the signal conversion circuit have an important effect on the measurement performance. It is necessary to study the effect of the electrical parameters on the measurement performance and propose an optimization method. In this study, a simulation model of the eddy current sensor is established by coupling a magnetic field and a circuit field. The circuits include the LC parallel resonance, the AC bridge, and three combination circuits of the LC resonant and AC bridge. The output voltage variation with the thickness of copper film is calculated, and the effect of the electrical parameters on sensitivity Ki is obtained. In the LC parallel resonant circuit, it' is revealed that K1 is maximum when the parallel capacitance CP is equal to the resonant capacitance C0. An optimization method of adjusting resistance RS in different thickness intervals is proposed. In the AC bridge circuit, it' is revealed that there exists an optimal RS, which makes K2 maximum. In three combination circuits, K3, K4, and K5 are the maximum when the capacitances (C1, C2, and C3) reach the resonant capacitance C0. In addition, the sensitivity of each combination circuit is improved compared with that of the AC bridge. The relevant analysis results are further verified by a series of experiments. According to the calculation results and the experimental analysis, the optimization method for electrical parameters is further proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a variety of film thickness measurement techniques for copper chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) are subsequently proposed. In this paper, the eddy-current technique is used. In the control system of the CMP tool developed in the State Key Laboratory of Tribology, there are in situ module and off-line module for measurement subsystem. The in situ module can get the thickness of copper film on wafer surface in real time, and accurately judge when the CMP process should stop. This is called end-point detection. The off-line module is used for multi-points measurement after CMP process, in order to know the thickness of remained copper film. The whole control system is structured with two levels, and the physical connection between the upper and the lower is achieved by the industrial Ethernet. The process flow includes calibration and measurement, and there are different algorithms for two modules. In the process of software development, C++ is chosen as the programming language, in combination with Qt OpenSource to design two modules' GUI and OPC technology to implement the communication between the two levels. In addition, the drawing function is developed relying on Matlab, enriching the software functions of the off-line module. The result shows that the control system is running stably after repeated tests and practical operations for a long time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]