Chemical mechanical polishing pad with controlled wetting

1. A chemical mechanical polishing pad for polishing a substrate selected from at least one of a magnetic substrate, an optical substrate and a semiconductor substrate; comprising:

a polishing layer comprising a plurality of polishing elements forming a three-dimensional reticulated network having a polishing texture;

wherein the polishing texture comprises a plurality of contact areas on a subset of the polishing elements;

wherein the polishing texture has an average dimensionless roughness, R, defined by the following equation:

R =(1 −C )/(1 +N )

where C is a ratio of the average contact area of the plurality of contact areas to an average horizontal projected area for the subset of the polishing elements and N is a ratio of an average non-contact area for the subset of the polishing elements to the average horizontal projected area;

wherein the average dimensionless roughness of the polishing texture is between 0.01 and 0.75; and,

wherein the polishing texture is adapted for polishing the substrate.

2. The chemical mechanical polishing pad of claim 1 , wherein 90% of the subset of polishing elements having contact areas exhibit a contact area that is within ±10% of the average contact area.

3. The chemical mechanical polishing pad of claim 1 , wherein 90% of the subset of polishing elements having contact areas exhibit a pitch with an adjacent polishing element having a contact area that is within ±10% of the average pitch.

4. The chemical mechanical polishing pad of claim 1 , wherein 90% of the subset of polishing elements having contact areas exhibit a contact area that is within ±10% of the average contact area; and wherein 90% of the subset of polishing elements having contact areas exhibit a pitch with an adjacent polishing element having a contact area that is within ±10% of the average pitch.

5. The chemical mechanical polishing pad of claim 1 , wherein the average dimensionless roughness, R, of the polishing texture is between 0.03 and 0.50.

6. The chemical mechanical polishing pad of claim 1 , wherein the contact areas are selected from square cross-sections, rectangular cross-sections, rhomboid cross-sections, triangular cross-sections, circular cross-sections, ovoid cross-sections, hexagonal cross-sections, polygonal cross-sections, and irregular cross-sections.

7. The chemical mechanical polishing pad of claim 1 , wherein the reticulated network has a plurality of unit cells, wherein the plurality of unit cells have an average width and an average length, and wherein the average width of the unit cells is ≦ the average length of the unit cells.

8. A method for polishing a substrate, comprising:

providing a substrate selected from at least one of a magnetic substrate, an optical substrate and a semiconductor substrate;

providing a chemical mechanical polishing pad having a polishing layer comprising a plurality of polishing elements forming a three-dimensional reticulated network having a polishing texture; wherein the polishing texture comprises a plurality of contact areas on the polishing elements; wherein the polishing texture has an average dimensionless roughness, R, defined by the following equation:

R =(1 −C )/(1 +N )

where C is a ratio of the average contact area of the plurality of contact areas to an average horizontal projected area for the subset of the polishing elements and N is a ratio of an average non-contact area for the subset of the polishing elements to the average horizontal projected area;

creating dynamic contact at the interface between the chemical mechanical polishing pad and the substrate.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

providing a polishing medium at an interface between the polishing texture and the substrate.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the polishing medium permeates less than 10% of the height of the polishing layer.