Preparation of alumina/silica core-shell abrasives and their CMP behavior

Abrasive is one of key influencing factors on the surface quality during the chemical mechanic polishing (CMP). α-Alumina particles, as a kind of widely used abrasive in CMP slurries, often cause to surface defects because of its high hardness. In the present paper, a series of novel alumina/silica core-shell abrasives in slurries were described. The CMP performances of the alumina/silica core-shell abrasives on hard disk substrate were investigated by using a SPEEDFAM-16B-4M CMP equipment. Experimental results indicate that the CMP performances are strong dependent on the coated SiO2 content of the alumina/silica composite abrasives. Slurries containing the alumina/silica composite abrasives exhibited lower surface roughness and waviness as well as lower topographical variations and less scratch than that containing pure alumina abrasive under the same testing conditions.