System for improving the total thickness variation of a wafer

The present invention generally relates to a system for improving the total thickness variation across a surface of a bulk semiconductor wafer and, in particular, relates to one such system having means for measuring the initial total thickness variation of the surface of the bulk semiconductor wafer. A system for improving the total thickness variation across a surface of a bulk semiconductor wafer includes an initial total thickness variation measuring instrument. The initial total thickness variation profile is then converted to a dwell time versus position map. A confined plasma is then used to selectively locally remove material from the surface so that the final surface of the bulk semiconductor has an improved final total thickness variation.