Estimation of material removal with the help of pad deformation in planarization process

Careful estimation of material removal rate is essential to planarization process. The reason is that the magnitude has significant effect on the time-consuming of the process, machining efficiency, the wear of abrasive particle and non-uniformity of pad surface. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to estimate material removal rate and conduct simulation for material removal volume under various machining parameters, such as abrasive force, rotational speed of dresser and machining path. Upon the wear model is assumed and deformation of polishing pad is obtained, one can investigate material removal volume carried out by single abrasive particle. Finally, total abrasive volume can be calculated by using superposition method. The results reveal that the volume increases when either the dressing force or the density of abrasive particles on dresser increases. Moreover, we find that the volume decreased when angular speed of dresser is introduced near the rotational speed of polishing pad. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.