Products used in this application:
In the semiconductor industry, a process known as Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) is used to polish wafers. These wafers are used in hard drives and other components to store and retrieve information. CMP machine pad polishing is a critical step in producing high quality wafers. This process is designed to remove excess materials and create a smooth surface.
Many different types of pads can be used to create the desired surface on the wafer. However, all of these pads must be applied to the wafer with repeatable and accurate force control. Proportion-Air is often used to control force in CMP machine pad polishing applications.
The semiconductor wafers will be polished to a high mirror finish. If the pad is not perfectly flat, the wafer polished will not meet specification. Proportion-Air’s QB2 proportional valve is perfect for this application which used a load cell as feedback. This allowed for closed-loop high accuracy control around the customer’s load cell. The QB2 is also able to collect and send analog output back to the PLC or controller for data aquisition. This information can be used to ensure proper operation or diagnose issues.