Polishing of bulk micro-machined substrates by fixed abrasive pads for smoothing and planarization of MEMS structures

In this work, an approach was made to use chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) by prototype fixed abrasive (FA) pads rather then conventional slurry based polishing for smoothing of bulk micro-machined and oxidized silicon wafers. A comparison is provided to conventional CMP, showing the minimization of edge rounding in case of FA use under the needed polishing step for sub-sequent wafer bonding. Simultaneously the achieved roughness provides a surface quality suitable for direct wafer bonding