Design of composite abrasives and substrate materials for chemical mechanical polishing applications

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has attracted much attention for high-performance manufacturing and setups, in which the surface roughness Ra is required to be less than 1 nm. In CMP, abrasives play a significant role in polishing quality and efficiency. Herein, we review the synthesis methods of abrasives including sSiO2@mSiO2, PS@CeO2, PS@SiO2 composites and their applications in CMP slurries. Then, the problems and solutions in CMP for soft- and hard-brittle solids and metals are presented in detail, such as cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe, soft brittle), silicon carbide (SiC, hard brittle) and copper (Cu, metal). After that, we summarize the molecular dynamics simulations of the CMP processes. Finally, the current problems of CMP and its development perspectives are discussed.