Trends and future developments for diamond CMP pad conditioners

摘要

The production of semiconductor chips relies heavily on the use of a Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process for planarization of the surface of the silicon wafers to enable the sophisticated integrated circuitry to operate as efficiently as possible. As the design of this circuitry moves inevitably towards higher integration and multi layer architecture, so CMP technology must advance to keep up with it. Crucial to the performance of CMP pads, is the constant polishing operations that have to be carried out during the working life of these pads using diamond CMP pad conditioners. CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing - also known as Chemical Mechanical Planarization) is the process whereby excess material is removed from semiconductor wafers to produce a flat surface. As its name suggests, the material is removed by a combination of a chemical and a mechanical process.