A THIN PLASTIC POLISHING ARTICLE FOR CMP APPLICATIONS

A method and apparatus for polishing a substrate that includes a polishing article comprising a polymeric sheet having a raised surface texture, which is formed on the surface of the polymeric sheet is provided. According to one or more implementations of the present disclosure, an advanced polishing article has been developed, which does not require abrasive pad conditioning. In some implementations of the present disclosure, the advanced polishing article comprises a polymeric sheet having a polishing surface with a raised surface texture or "micro-features" and/or a plurality of grooves or "macro-features" formed in the polishing surface. In some implementations, the raised surface texture is embossed, etched, machined or otherwise formed in the polishing surface prior to installing and using the advanced polishing article in a polishing system. In one implementation, the raised features have a height within one order of magnitude of the features removed from the substrate during polishing.