WHAT IS CMP (CHEMICAL MECHANICAL POLISHING)?
- Method of creating a reflective surface
- The polishing media typically consists of fine-grained or submicron abrasive particles in combination with a liquid.
- Polishing is a "wet" process.
- Often, the polishing process uses a pad to hold the abrasive so that polishing cannot be a "loose sanding process."
- Very little material is removed during polishing, usually measured in microns.
- The surface condition of the workpiece to be polished must be high quality before the polishing process. In the case of SiC machining, this is usually a DMP process.
- Different polishing processes can be combined to optimize the CoO across the entire process chain.
- In the field of SiC processing, CMP is the final process step in the surface treatment of wafers.
How chemical mechanical polishing works
- CMP uses a polishing pad and a polishing agent with specific chemical properties.
- The loose abrasives introduced into the process area by the polishing agent are embedded in the flexible polishing pad.
- The polishing agent chemically influences the material to be processed to facilitate mechanical removal.
- The embedded abrasives create a machining process that eliminates scratches and unevenness from the chemically influenced material, thus creating a very precise surface.
- The carrier liquid of the polishing agent also transports chips and heat out of the process area.
- The liquid carrier material in the polishing agent helps to reduce polishing agent consumption and enables uniform, controlled application in the process area.
- The results of the CMP process are the best possible flatness, parallelism, and roughness of the workpieces.
- The chemical influence of the polishing agent can further reduce damage to the material (sub-surface damage)