A chemical mechanical polishing apparatus has a platen to support a polishing pad, the platen having a recess, a carrier head to hold a surface of a substrate against the polishing pad and comprising a retaining ring to retain the substrate below the carrier head, a motor to generate relative motion between the platen and the carrier head so as to polish the substrate, an in-situ acoustic monitoring system comprising an acoustic sensor arranged in the recess that receives acoustic energy from friction between the substrate and the polishing pad and from friction between the retaining ring and the polishing pad, and a controller configured to generate a value for a carrier head status parameter based on received acoustic signals from the in-situ acoustic monitoring system, and change or polishing parameter or generate an alert based on the carrier head status parameter.

A process for support material removal for 3D printed parts wherein the part is placed in a media filled tank and support removal is optimized in a multi-parameter system through an artificial intelligence process which may include, but is not limited to, the use of historical data, parametric testing data, normal support removal data, and outputs from other support removal AI models to generate optimally efficient use of each parameter in terms of pulse repetition interval (PRI) and cycle time as defined by pulse width (PW). The input parameters may include heat, circulation, ultrasound and chemical reaction, which are used in sequence and/or in parallel, to optimize efficiency of support removal. Sequentially and/or in parallel, heat, pump circulation and ultrasound may vary in application or intensity. Selection of means of agitation depends on monitored feedback from the support removal tank and application of a statistically dynamic rule based system (SDRBS).

An apparatus for machining an object includes a wheel having a first circular surface, a second circular surface oriented parallel to the first circular surface, a first rim surface extending from the first circular surface at a first edge, and a second rim surface extending from the second circular surface at a second edge and towards the first rim surface. A gradient of the first rim surface has a radial component, and a gradient of the second rim surface has a radial component. The first edge defines a curved surface between the first circular surface and the first rim surface, and the second edge defines a curved surface between the second circular surface and the second rim surface.

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) apparatus and methods for manufacturing CMP apparatus are provided herein. CMP apparatus may include polishing pads, polishing head retaining rings, and polishing head membranes, among others, and the CMP apparatus may be manufactured via additive manufacturing processes, such as three dimensional (3D) printing processes. The CMP apparatus may include wireless communication apparatus components integrated therein. Methods of manufacturing CMP apparatus include 3D printing wireless communication apparatus into a polishing pad and printing a polishing pad with a recess configured to receive a preformed wireless communication apparatus.

A polishing tool wear amount prediction device, machine learning device, and system capable of predicting a wear amount of a polishing tool unit of a polishing tool during polishing are provided. The polishing tool wear amount prediction device includes a machine learning device which observes polishing condition data indicating a processing condition of polishing as a state variable indicating a current environment state and performs, based on the state variable, learning or prediction by using a learning model which stores a correlation of the wear amount of the polishing tool with respect to the processing condition of polishing.

A machining unit for a program-controlled machine tool. In particular, a spindle device for a program-controlled machine tool including a spindle housing; a working spindle which is mounted in the spindle housing in a rotatable manner about a spindle axis and which includes a clamping device for clamping a tool interface that is inserted in a tool receiving section of the spindle device and is configured to hold a milling or boring tool; and a sensor device which is arranged on the spindle housing and which includes at least one structure-borne sound sensor configured to detect structure-borne sounds or vibrations occurring during grinding operations.

A grinding machine includes a manual rotating handle provided with a rotation detector that outputs a rotation detection signal so that the position of a grinding wheel with respect to a workpiece can be relatively moved in accordance with the rotation detection signal. The grinding machine further includes a grinding wheel, a moving apparatus that moves the position of the grinding wheel with respect to a workpiece W, a proximity detector that outputs a proximity detection signal corresponding to a relative position or a relative distance between the workpiece and the grinding wheel, a manual rotating handle provided with a rotation detector, and a control apparatus that controls the moving apparatus based on the rotation detection signal. The manual rotating handle is provided with a rotational-torque varying apparatus. The control apparatus controls the rotational-torque varying apparatus based on the proximity detection signal.

A system, a control method and an apparatus for chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) are introduced in the present application. The CMP apparatus may include a polishing pad, a first sensor, a polishing head and a condition. The polishing pad has a plurality of groves arranged randomly or in a specific pattern. The first sensor is configured to measure the pad profile of the polishing pad, where the pad profile includes the depth of each of the grooves on the polishing pad. The polishing head and the conditioner are operated according to at least one polishing condition, and the at least one polishing condition is tuned according to the pad profile.

A method is provided and includes: measuring a surface profile of a polishing pad; obtaining a reference profile of the polishing pad; comparing the surface profile of the polishing pad with the reference profile to generate a difference result; determining a conditioning parameter value according to the difference result; and conditioning the polishing pad using the conditioning parameter value.

Shortcomings associated with insufficient control of a conventional CMP-process are obviated by providing an CMP-apparatus configured to complement a constant force (to which a workpiece that is being polished is conventionally exposed) with a time-alternating force and/or means for measuring an electrical characteristic of the CMP-process. The time-alternating force is applied with the use of a system component that is electrically isolated from the workpiece and that is disposed in the carrier-chick in which the workpiece is affixed for CMP-process, while the electrical characteristic is measured with the use of a judiciously-configured reservoir in which the used fluid is collected. The use of such CMP-apparatus.