Technical Insight
Rodel Introduces Polishing Pad (Materials and Equipment)
Rodel (Chiba, Japan) has introduced a new polishing pad for GaAs, InP and Si wafers. The SPM3100 is an advanced poromeric pad that reduces break-in times and allows production wafers to be polished immediately after installation. While physical property variation is a common problem for poromeric pads coated on traditional felt substrates, the new pad s pore structure is grown directly on Mylar to reduce such variation. This provides the necessary balance between pad compressibility and hardness, providing low levels of scratching, light point defects and haze, while maintaining the wafer s geometry, says the company.