A new approach to silicon wafer edge treatment by Ultrasonically Assisted Polishing (UAP)

This paper proposes a new method for silicon wafer edge treatment by Ultrasonically Assisted Polishing (UAP), in which an ultrasonic elliptic vibration polishing pad holder is employed. Thus the speed of the polishing pad relative to the wafer is increased, and a small gap is generated between the pad and the work surface so that the slurry intrudes easily into the polishing area. Experimental results showed that the wafer surface roughness and the material removal rate obtained by UAP were better by over 58% and over 24%, respectively, than those without UAP.