Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) or planarization is a process of smoothing surfaces with the combination of chemical and mechanical forces. It can be thought of as a hybrid of chemical etching and free abrasive polishing. Description The process uses an abrasive and corrosive chemical slurry (commonly a colloid) in conjunction with a polishing pad and retaining ring, typically of a greater diameter than the wafer. The pad and wafer are pressed together by a dynamic polishing head and held in place by a plastic retaining ring. The dynamic polishing head is rotated with different axes of rotation (i.e., not concentric). This removes material and tends to even out any irregular topography, making the wafer flat or planar. This may be necessary to set up the wafer for the formation of additional circuit elements. For example, CMP can bring the entire surface within the depth of field of a photolithography system, or selectively remove material based on its position. Typical depth-of-field requirements are down to Angstrom levels for the latest 22 nm technology. Working principles Physical action Typical CMP tools, such as the ones seen on the right, consist of rotating an extremely flat plate which is covered by a pad. The wafer that is being polished is mounted upside-down in a carrier/spindle on a backing film. The retaining ring (Figure 1) keeps the wafer in the correct horizontal position. During the process of loading and unloading the wafer onto the tool, the wafer is held by vacuum by the carrier to prevent unwanted particles from building up on the wafer surface. A slurry introduction mechanism deposits the slurry on the pad, represented by the slurry supply in Figure 1. Both the plate and the carrier are then rotated and the carrier is kept oscillating; this can be better seen in the top view of Figure 2. A downward pressure/down force is applied to the carrier, pushing it against the pad; typically the down force is an average force, but local pressure is needed for the removal mechanisms. Down force depends on the contact area which, in turn, is dependent on the structures of both the wafer and the pad. Typically the pads have a roughness of 50 μm; contact is made by asperities (which typically are the high points on the wafer) and, as a result, the contact area is only a fraction of the wafer area. In CMP, the