Study on Optical Properties of Lithium Niobate Using CMP

Lithium niobate (LN: LiNbO3) is a compound of niobium, lithium and oxygen. The characteristics of LN are piezoelectricity, ferroelectricity and photoelectricity, and which is widely used in surface acoustic wave (SAW). To manufacture LN devices, the LN surface should be a smooth surface and defect-free because of optical property, but the LN material is processed difficult b traditional processes such as grinding and mechanical polishing (MP) because of its brittleness. To decrease defects, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) was applied to the LN wafer. In this study, the suitable parameters such as down force and relative velocity, were investigated for the LN CMP process To improve roughness, the LN CMP was performed using the parameters that were the highest removal rate among process parameters. And, evaluation of optical property was performed by the optical reflectance.