Patent ID: 9744724
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: B24B,B24D,B29C,B29K,B29L,B33Y

Claim:
1. An apparatus for fabricating at least a polishing layer of a polishing pad, comprising: a support; a supply of liquid polishing pad material precursor that becomes a polishing pad material upon curing; a droplet ejecting printer including a nozzle and configured to deliver the pad material precursor onto the support or an underlying layer of solidified polishing pad material without a powder to successively form a plurality of layers on the support, at least some of the plurality of layers providing the polishing layer; a computer coupled to the droplet ejecting printer and configured to control the droplet ejecting printer to deposit a first layer of the plurality of layers by ejecting droplets of the pad material precursor onto the support and to deposit each subsequent layer of the plurality layers by ejecting droplets of the pad material precursor directly onto the underlying layer of solidified polishing pad material without a layer of the powder; and a radiation source to cure the pad material precursor to solidify the liquid polishing pad material precursor so as to form the polishing pad material on the support, and wherein the support is configured for the polishing pad material to be removed from the support to provide at least the polishing layer of the polishing pad.