Single crystal sapphire substrates with high quality surface finish and integrity significantly enhance performance and reliability of various microelectronics and LED devices. Traditional Chemical Mechanical Polishing necessitates highly alkaline slurries or ultra-hard abrasives owing to sapphire's ultra-high hardness and chemical inertness. Such trade-off is obviated by utilizing an atmospheric pressure plasma (in He-H2O mixture) for chemical action, facilitating higher material removal rate at neutral pH by buffing alone, without abrasives. Plasma induced surface modification is studied by nanoindentation. A 2x improvement in MRR is achieved, and 40x projected. Effects of plasma parameters and polishing conditions on planarization effectiveness are discussed. (c) 2015 CIRP.
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