Using sacrificial material in additive manufacturing of polishing pads
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Redfield, Jason Garcheung Fung, Mayu Felicia Yamamura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of fabricating a polishing pad using an additive manufacturing system includes depositing a first set successive layers by droplet ejection to form a. Depositing the successive layers includes dispensing a polishing pad precursor to first regions corresponding to partitions of the polishing pad and dispensing a sacrificial material to second regions corresponding to grooves of the polishing pad. Removing the sacrificial material provides the polishing pad with a polishing surface that has the partitions separated by the grooves.
Claims9
An additive manufacturing system, the system comprising:
- a support;
- a first dispenser configured to dispense a polishing pad precursor by droplet ejection;
- a second dispenser configured to dispense a sacrificial material;
- at least one energy source;
- and
- a controller configured to
- receive data indicative of a desired shape of a polishing pad to be fabricated by droplet ejection by an additive manufacturing system, the polishing pad comprising a polishing surface having one or more partitions separated by one or more grooves, and
- cause the first dispenser to depositing onto a lower portion of the polishing pad a plurality of successive layers by droplet ejection, wherein the controller is configured to
- cause the first dispenser to deliver the polishing pad precursor to first regions corresponding to the partitions of the polishing pad, and
- cause the second dispenser to deliver the sacrificial material to second regions that abut the first regions to form walls that line the vertical surfaces of the partitions, wherein gaps between adjacent partitions correspond to the grooves in the polishing pad.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.