A Fundamental Investigation on Ultrasonic Assisted Fixed Abrasive CMP (UF-CMP) of Silicon Wafer

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is often employed to obtain a super smooth work-surface of a silicon wafer. However, as a conventional CMP is a loose abrasive process, it is hard to achieve the high profile accuracy and lots of slurry must be supplied during CMP operations. As an alternate solution, a fixed abrasive CMP process can offer better geometrical accuracy and discharges less waste disposal. In this paper, in order to enhance the polishing efficiency and improve the work-surface quality, a novel ultrasonic assisted fixed abrasive CMP (UF-CMP) is proposed and the fundamental machining characteristics of the UF-CMP of a silicon wafer is investigated experimentally. The results show that with the ultrasonic assistance, the material removal rate (MRR) is increased, and the surface quality is improved.