Patent ID: 7101799

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, said at least one conditioning parameter having maximum and minimum values; b) polishing a wafer in the 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; d) calculating at least one updated pad conditioning parameters based upon said determined wafer material removal rate of said step (c) and the pad wear and conditioning model to maintain wafer material removal rates within the maximum and minimum removal rates; and e) conditioning the polishing pad using at least one the updated conditioning parameters.