Status of Wafer-Level Modeling

The modeling of wafer-level polishing effects has primarily been done in the context of blanket wafers with a uniform (unpatterned) single material thin film, and that modeling is usually considered independently of the 

The desire to improve wafer-level uniformity continues to drive the study of wafer-scale CMP dependencies. Effective and practical means now exist for empirical simulation of wafer-level polish rate across the entire wafer however, substantial enhancement remains necessary to develop predicitive models with sufficient detail and physical bases for exploratory tool design and optimization. 

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