Polishing of bulk micro-machined substrates by fixed abrasive pads for smoothing and planarization of MEMS structures

The Paper describes the general need for CMP in the MEMS technology area and the shortcomings of conventional slurry-based polishing techniques for the large scale structures. By introducing fixed Abrasive (FA) polishing it is shown, that benefits of CMP can be introduced to MEMS as the typical problems of pattern erosion of single standing pattern are minimized. With the developed FA processes a wide area of MEMS capable polishing processes, such as smoothing of bulk micro-machined wafers for enabling direct wafer bonding is generated. This in turn leads to enhanced manufacturing possibilities of advanced design micro mechanical structures for future applications