Conditioner characterization and implementation for impacts of diamonds on CMP pad texture and performance

This paper reports a conditioner characterization method to quantify diamond characteristics with precise statistical measurements and implementation of this method to understand the impact of conditioners on pad texture and performance. Differences in diamond characteristics across different types of disks, and differences between batches of the same type of disk were observed and quantified. Diamond wear was also successfully quantified by the histogram shifts. The paper explains how variations in conditioning disks can impact polishing performance via their impact on texture.