Printing of polishing pads

Abstract

A polishing pad includes a flexible substrate and a polymeric polishing layer that has a repeatable pattern of polymeric asperities that are manufactured by printing, according to a gravure printing process or a screen printing process.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A process for making polishing pads useful in the manufacture of a semiconductor device or a precursor thereto, comprising applying a hydrophilic polymeric polishing layer having a pattern of polymeric asperities to a flexible base substrate using a printing process.  
     
     
         2 . The process of    claim 1    in which the hydrophilic polymeric polishing layer is a polymeric material having: 
 i. a density greater than 0.5 g/cm 3 ;  
 ii. a critical surface tension greater than or equal to 34 miliNewtons per meter;  
 iii. a tensile modulus of 0.02 to 5 GigaPascals;  
 iv. a ratio of tensile modulus at 30° C. to tensile modulus at 60° C. of 1.0 to 2.5;  
 v. a hardness of 25 to 80 Shore D;  
 vi. a yield stress of 300-6000 psi;  
 vii. a tensile strength of 1000 to 15,000 psi; and  
 viii. an elongation to break less than or equal to 500%,  
 
     
     
         3 . The process of    claim 2    in which the hydrophilic polymeric polishing layer is a polymeric material comprising at least one moiety from the group consisting of: 1. a urethane; 2. a carbonate; 3. an amide; 4. an ester; 5. an ether; 6. an acrylate; 7. a methacrylate; 8. an acrylic acid; 9. a methacrylic acid; 10. a sulphone; 11. an acrylamide; 12. a halide; 13. an imide; 14. a carboxyl; 15. a carbonyl; 16. an amino; 17. an aldehydric and 18. a hydroxyl.  
     
     
         4 . The process of    claim 3    in which the printing process used is gravure printing.  
     
     
         5 . The process of    claim 3    in which the printing process used is screen printing.  
     
     
         6 . The process of    claim 1    wherein the hydrophilic polishing layer further comprises a plurality of soft domains and a plurality of hard domains, the hard domains and soft domains having an average size of less than 100 microns.  
     
     
         7 . A polishing pad for use in chemical mechanical polishing, comprising: a polishing layer consisting essentially of a hydrophilic polishing layer applied by a printing process selected from the group of gravure printing and screen printing, said polishing layer having: 
 i. density greater than 0.5 g/cm 3 ;    ii. a critical surface tension greater than or equal to 34 milliNewtons per meter;    iii. a tensile modulus of 0.02 to 5 GigaPascals;    iv. a ratio of tensile modulus at 30° C. to tensile modulus at 60° C. of 1.0 to 2.5;    v. a hardness of 25 to 80 Shore D;    vi. a yield stress of 300-6000 psi;    vii. a tensile strength of 1000 to 15,000 psi; and    viii. an elongation to break less than or equal to 500%.    
     
     
         8 . The polishing pad    claim 7    in which the hydrophilic polymeric polishing layer is a polymeric material comprising at least one moiety from the group consisting of: 1. a urethane; 2. a carbonate; 3. an amide; 4. an ester; 5. an ether; 6. an acrylate; 7. a methacrylate; 8. an acrylic acid; 9. a methacrylic acid; 10. a sulphone; 11. an acrylamide; 12. a halide; 13. an imide; 14. a carboxyl; 15. a carbonyl; 16. an amino; 17. an aldehydric and 18. a hydroxyl.  
     
     
         9 . A method of polishing a substrate of a semi-conductor device, comprising: providing a polishing pad of    claim 7    and interposing a slurry of particles between the semiconductor device and the pad and chemical mechanical polishing the surface of the semiconductor device.