Polycrystalline diamond shaving conditioner for CMP pad conditioning

This paper investigates a new design of diamond conditioner that is made by shaping a sintered matrix of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) to form serrated blades. These blades are arranged and embedded in a predetermined groove on a substrate surface of cylinder. This newly designed diamond conditioner is referred to here as a blade diamond disk. The dressing characteristics of pad surface textures are studied by comparing them with traditional diamond conditioners, and the polishing rates of silicon dioxide are also studied. It is found that serrated blades made of polycrystalline diamond enable the manufacturer to tightly control the diamond leveling, cutterʹs shape and penetration angle. The height variations of the diamond tips of the blade diamond disk are significantly smaller than that of the traditional diamond disk. Experimental results reveal that the pad dressing rate of a blade diamond disk is lower than that of a conventional diamond disk. The lifetime of the pad is expected to have been prolonged, consequently lowering the cost of the CMP process. The removal rate of the oxide film is higher for the blade diamond disk than for the traditional diamond disk, and hence wafer productivity is somewhat increased.