Patent ID: 7288165

Claim:
A pad conditioning head for a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process, comprising: a rotatable member; an end effector adapted to receive and retain a conditioning disk; a sealing element comprising a flexible lip disposed around the rotatable member, the flexible lip being adapted to: seal against the rotatable member when the rotatable member is not rotating, and retract, in response to a pressure force from a gaseous media, away from the rotatable member, when the rotatable member is rotating so as to permit the gaseous media to flow past the flexible lip, along the rotatable member; and an elastic device disposed between the rotatable member and the end effector, the elastic device being: adapted to rotate the end effector via a torque from the rotatable member, and flexibly extensible so as to impart a force to the end effector while permitting the end effector to deviate from a perpendicular alignment with the rotatable member in order for a conditioning surface of the conditioning disk to conform to an irregular polishing surface of a pad being conditioned.