The Effect of Pad Groove Density on CMP Characteristics

Polishing pads play an important role in chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) which has recently been recognized at the most effective method to achieve global planarization. In this paper, we have investigated CMP characteristics as a change of groove density of polishing pads. The parameter is proposed to estimate groove density of pad. The is defined as groove area divided by pitch area. As the groove density value increased, removal rate increased to some point and then gradually saturated in case of increasing the groove density excessively. In addition Within wafer non-uniformity(WIWNU) worse as groove density increased excessively, although WIWNU improved as groove density increased. Also the uniformity of temperature of pad surface decreased as the groove density increased. It was because that the cooling effect increased as groove density increased. In other words, increasing the groove density which means the apparent contact area of pad has influence on amount of discharge of slurry during polishing process.