Patent ID: 6852020

Claim:
A process of making polishing pads for use in chemical mechanical polishing of substrates, each said polishing pad having a ground polishing surface and consisting of a porous fibrous matrix of paper-making fibers, fillers, and a binder for binding said porous fibrous matrix, said binder consisting of thermoset resin, said porous fibrous matrix and said binder forming a porous structure; said ground polishing surface consisting of a ground surface of open-pore construction and defines surface asperities said process comprising: (a) making said polishing pads using a wet laid paper-making process; (b) said step of making comprising forming a slurry of at least water, paper-making fibers, and latex; (c) mixing said slurry of said step of forming a slurry in order to disperse the fibers; (d) delivering said mixed slurry to a paper-making apparatus, and forming a wet-laid sheet; (e) drying the wet-laid sheet of said step of forming a wet-laid pad; (f) adding and curing thermoset resin binder; (g) said step of adding and curing comprising at least one of: adding the thermoset resin during said step of making, and after said step of drying; (h) cutting the sheet to form polishing pads of desired size; (i) grinding at least one surface face of each said polishing pad to form said asperities and to open the porous matrix for polishing slurry transport during CMP processes; and (j) adding nanometer-sized conditioning-reinforcing filler particles so that each said ground polishing surface is reinforced to improve resistance to wear during conditioning of said ground polishing surface by a conditioning disk so that said polishing surface requires less frequent and less vigorous conditioning after repetitive uses.