A Modeling Approach for Predicting the Abrasive Particle Motion During Chemical Mechanical Polishing

Abstract

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a manufacturing process in which a wafer surface is polished by pressing it against a rotating pad that is flooded with slurry. The slurry itself is a fluid containing abrasive particles. Past experimentation has shown that the distribution of suspended particles in the slurry is significantly related to the distribution of material removal on the wafer during CMP. Therefore, this study involves the development and simulation of a model that predicts the kinematics and trajectory of the abrasive particles. The simulation results compare well to data from shear cell experiments data conducted by other researchers.