Effect of Chemicals on Chemical Mechanical Polishing of Glass Substrates

We investigate the effect of chemicals on chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of glass substrates. Ceria slurry in an ultra-low concentration of 0.25wt.% is used and characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Three typical molecules, i.e. acetic acid, citric acid and sodium acrylic polymer, are adopted to investigate the effect on CMP performance in terms of material removal rate (MRR) and surface quality. The addition of sodium acrylic polymer shows the highest MRR as well as the best surface by atomic force microscopy after CMP, while the addition of citric acid shows the worst performance. These results reveal a mechanism that a long-chain molecule without any branches rather than small molecules and common molecules with ramose abundant-electron groups is better for the dispersion of the slurry and thus better for the CMP process.