The effects of abrasive yielding on the polishing of SiC wafers using a semi-fixed flexible pad

A newly developed sol-gel (SG) polishing pad can satisfy the processing demands of SiC wafers by providing scratch-free polished surfaces with nano-roughness. The main characteristic of this polishing tool is the semi-fixed abrasive together with the flexible matrix. In this article, contrastive experiments involving polishing of SiC wafers with three different types of tools were conducted to confirm the machining mechanism of the SG polishing pad. The results indicate that the abrasives in the pad exhibit yielding effects during the polishing process, contributing to the achievement of a mirror-like wafer surface. In addition, larger abrasives can be chosen for the SG polishing pad to obtain relatively high wafer surface quality instead of smaller ones, thereby avoiding the agglomeration problem of ultrafine abrasives.