Surface Characterization of Silicon Wafers Polished by Three Different Methods

The surface roughness and surface morphology of silicon wafers polished by three different polishing methods were analyzed in this paper. A polishing pad was prepared by means of sol-gel technology as semi-fixed abrasive tool. An electroplated polishing pad was chosen as fixed abrasive tool. And a polishing cloth was chosen as free abrasive tool. The results showed that the surface of silicon wafer polished by the sol-gel polishing pad was superior to the other two. It was easy to get mirror effect with few scratches while the free abrasive and fixed abrasive got lots of scratches on 23silicon wafers. The surface roughness of silicon wafer polished by the sol-gel polishing pad reached 1.41nm measured by atomic force microscope (AFM).