A pseudo-physical model simulates the erosion of large area three-dimensional
patterns
on workpieces during a chemical mechanical polishing process. The model is based
on determining the vertical location of individual nodes on the polishing pad stack
and corresponding individual nodes on the workpiece. Contact forces between the
pad and the workpiece are determined by the deflection of the pad stack which is
transformed into a contact force by modeling the polishing stack as abstract mathematical springs.
