Effects of conditioning temperature on polishing pad for oxide chemical mechanical polishing process

Polishing pad plays a key role in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), which has been recognized as a critical step to improve the morphology of wafers for semiconductor chip fabrication. The performance of oxide CMP process is investigated using commercial silica slurry as the temperature of pad conditioning is increased. This study also shows the change of the pore and groove geometries on the polishing pad with the different temperatures in pad conditioning. The pad conditioning with the high temperature achieved the improved removal rate of oxide film by the reason of larger transport of slurry and the better surface morphology without defect by somewhat softer characteristic of polishing pad.