Polishing pad conditioning system and method of using

A method of conditioning a polishing pad comprising:

• detecting a roughness of the polishing pad;
• tracking a number of iterations of conditioning of the polishing pad;
• determining whether the detected roughness satisfies a roughness threshold;
• determining whether the number of iterations is equal to or greater than an iteration limit in response to determining that the detected roughness fails to satisfy the roughness threshold;
• and
• outputting a signal for replacing the polishing pad in response to the number of iterations being equal to or greater than the iteration limit and the detected roughness failing to satisfy the roughness threshold.

A system for controlling a polishing pad, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to store instructions thereon;
• and
• a processor connected to the non-transitory computer readable medium, wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions for:
• detecting a roughness of the polishing pad;
• tracking a number of iterations of conditioning of the polishing pad;
• determining whether the detected roughness satisfies a roughness threshold;
• determining whether the number of iterations is equal to or greater than an iteration limit in response to determining that the detected roughness fails to satisfy the roughness threshold;
• and
• outputting a signal for replacing the polishing pad in response to the number of iterations being equal to or greater than the iteration limit and the detected roughness failing to satisfy the roughness threshold.