Patent ID: 6910947

Claim:
A method of conditioning a planarizing surface in a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) apparatus having a polishing pad against which a wafer is positioned for removal of material therefrom and a conditioning disk is positioned for conditioning of the polishing pad, comprising the steps of: a) providing a pad wear and conditioning model that defines wafer material removal rate as a function of at least one pad conditioning parameter selected from the group including rotation speed and rotation direction of a conditioning disk; b) polishing a wafer in a CMP apparatus under a first set of pad conditioning parameters selected to maintain wafer material removal rates within preselected minimum and maximum removal rates; c) determining a wafer material removal rate occurring during said polishing step; and d) calculating updated pad conditioning parameters based upon said determined wafer material removal rate of said step (c) and the pad wear and conditioning model of said step (a).