POLISHING PADS AND METHODS FOR THEIR MANUFACTURE

摘要

Polymer-based pads useful for polishing objects, particularly integrated circuits, having interconnected porosity which is uniform in all directions, and where the solid portion of the pad (9) consists of a uniform continuously interconnected polymer material of greater than 50 % of the gross volume of the article, are produced directly to final shape and dimension by pressure sintering powder compacts of thermoplastic polymer at a temperature above the glass transition temperature but not exceeding the melting point of the polymer and at a pressure in excess of 100 psi in a mold having the desired final pad dimensions. In a preferred version, a mixture of two polymer powders is used, where one polymer has a lower melting point than the other. When pressure sintered at a temperature not to exceed the melting point of the lower melting powder, the increased stiffness afforded by incorporation of the higher melting polymer component gives improved mechanical strength to the sintered product.