Optimization of processing parameters of chemical mechanical polishing of soda lime glass using nanocrystalline cerium oxide synthesized through wet combustion process

Abstract

Cerium oxide nano particles have been the subject of intense academic and industrial interest. Ceria has a host of applications but academic interest largely stems from their use in the modern automotive catalyst but it is also of interest because of many other application areas notably as the abrasive in Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) of silicon substrates, Recently ceria has been the focus of nano particles is implicated in their biochemistry. Ceria has well understood non-stiochiometry based around the ease of formation of anion vacancies and these can form ordered super structure based around the lattice structure. The anion vacancies are associated with localized or small polar on states formed by the electrons that remain after oxygen desorption This is a very simplistic explanation and greater defect chemistry complexity is suggested by more work recently. Various authors have shown that vacancies are mobile and may result in vacancy clustering. Ceria nano particles are of particular interest, because of the high activity and surface area of small particulates. Based on these results and a review of the literature it is worthwhile asking if a model of surface enhanced defect concentration is consistent with known cerium oxide chemistries. Soda Lime glass continues to be a common variety of glass used in majority of applications. Thus for various applications involved in a smooth surface is the demand in the industry for commercial usage. The polishing of glass using Chemical Mechanical Polishing continues to be a major challenge in polishing of glass. The Soda lime glass used was polished considering Slurry Flow Rate, Speed and Down Pressure and Process time as the major influencing parameters and was examined for Surface Roughness and Material Removal Rate. Topographical studies were done on the polished surfaces using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to compare the surface peaks. The Taguchi s Design of Experiments was implemented to obtain the best combination of parameters. Analysis of Variance was also done to verify the significant of the combination of the parameters. newline