Optimized slurry compositions for the polishing of sapphire surfaces

This paper describes a systematic approach to the optimization of polishing slurries for the chemical mechanical planarization of both a- and c-plane sapphire surfaces by colloidal silica abrasives through the use of statistical design of experiments. Results show that slurry mixture compositions providing maximum removal rates for a- and c-plane sapphire surfaces are different and that the optimal compositions for one surface are likely to be suboptimal for the other.