Chemical mechanical polishing of polymeric materials for MEMS applications

Polymeric materials such as polycarbonate (PC) and poly-methyl methacryate (PMMA) are replacing silicon as the major substrate in microfluidic system fabrication due to their outstanding features such as low cost and good chemical resistance. In this study, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of PC and PMMA substrates was investigated. Four types of slurry were tested on CMP of the polymers under the same process conditions. The slurry suitable for polishing PC and PMMA was then chosen, and further CMP experiments were carried out under different process conditions. Experimental results showed that increasing table speed or head load increased the material removal rates of the polymers. The polymeric surface quality after CMP was acceptable to most MEMS applications. Analysis of variance was also carried out, and it was found that the interaction of head load and table speed had a significant (95% confidence) effect on surface finish of polished PMMA. On the other hand, table speed had a highly significant (99% confidence) effect on surface finish of polished PC.