A pad roughness model for the analysis of lubrication in the chemical mechanical polishing of a silicon wafer

The slurry flow beneath the wafer in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), involving the chemical reaction and the lubrication, is critical to the planarity and surface quality of a large-sized silicon wafer. In order to analyse the effects of pad roughness and some important operating parameters on the slurry flow with the suspended abrasives between the wafer and the pad, a complicated three-dimensional model based on the micropolar fluid theory, Brinkman equations and Darcy's law is developed. The effects of pad roughness and vital parameters on the slurry flow between the pad and the wafer are well discussed.