Polishing properties of porous silica abrasive on hard disk substrate CMP

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is the only technology to provide global planarisation of topography with a low post-planarisation slope. Abrasive is one of the key influencing factors on the surface quality during the CMP. Traditional silica abrasive is easy to cause polishing scratches since it is compact solid particle. In this work the polishing properties of porous silica abrasive in hard disk substrate CMP were investigated. The results show that the polishing down force and rotating speed have a strong influence on the material removal rate and average surface roughness of the hard disk substrate. After polishing with the slurry containing the porous silica abrasive, a smooth hard disk substrate surface was obtained. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.