Selection of CVD Diamond Crystal Size on a CVD Pad Conditioner for Improved Lifetime

Pad conditioners are important consumables for semiconductor chemical mechanical planarization processes. Recently, a new concept has been developed to improve the performance and lifetime of a pad conditioner by depositing diamond film on a uniformly patterned substrate. In this study, we investigated the pad conditioner lifetime while varying the crystal size of the deposited diamond film, which was controlled via different methane (CH 4 ) gas concentrations in hydrogen gas (H 2 ). Microcrystalline diamond (MCD) film was formed using 2% CH 4 in H 2 flow and nanocrystalline diamond film (NCD) was formed with 4% CH 4 . The NCD film showed a longer lifetime and higher adhesion with the substrate than the MCD film. Graphical Abstract