Two-Phase Hydrodynamic Modeling of Particulate Fluids in Sliding Contacts

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a manufacturing process that uses controlled wear to planarize dielectric and metallic layers on silicon wafers. The wafer is polished by pressing it against a rotating pad that is flooded with slurry. The slurry itself is a fluid containing abrasive particles. Material removal rate (MRR) results have shown that the distribution of suspended particles in the slurry is significantly related to the wafer surface wear distribution during CMP. In this study, a simple model has been developed and solved as a preliminary step in analyzing the migration of the particles.