Chemical mechanical planarization ͑CMP͒ is a process widely used for the manufacture of silicon integrated circuits. In this work, we measured the thickness of the slurry film between the wafer and the pad during polish while simultaneously measuring the frictional drag. All experiments are performed on a 1:2 scale laboratory tabletop rotary polisher with variable pad speed and wafer downforce control. Dual emission laser-induced fluorescence techniques optically measured the slurry film thickness through a dual-camera imaging system. The resulting data are discussed for wafers polished with a 3.1 wt % abrasive concentration slurry solution on Freudenberg's FX-9 polishing pads. It was found that the degree of surface curvature of the wafer substrate significantly influences the slurry film thickness and wafer drag, and therefore, the polish. The convex wafer shows the expected behavior of increased downforce reduces the slurry film thickness and increases the coefficient of friction. Further, as the pad speeds up, the slurry thickness increases and the friction decreases. The concave wafer shows no change in slurry film thickness and a decrease in the frictional coefficient with increasing downforce. Both the film thickness and frictional coefficient appear to decrease slightly with increasing pad speed. This difference between the two wafer shapes reflects the different fluid mechanics in each case.The chemical mechanical planarization ͑CMP͒ process is generally accepted as the technique used for the manufacture of integrated circuits ͑ICs͒, yet the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms involved in this process is limited. In recent years fundamental research has been done to both experimentally understand polishing characteristics and analytically model the processes involved. 1-3 To model the removal rate, one must first understand how the thin ͑ϳ20 m͒ film of slurry between the wafer and polishing pad behaves. Thin-film thicknesses also imply that the asperities in the pad reach through the slurry and rub on the pad. Wafer nonuniformities in turn lead to defects during production. Slurry film thickness during polishing is largely determined by how the hydrodynamic pressure of the fluid and the pad asperities support the wafer downforce. Levert, Mess, and Tichy have found that during polishing there is a vacuum created underneath a static wafer, pulling the wafer into the pad. 4-6 Sundararajan has found positive fluid pressure developing in the gap between the wafer and polishing pad. 7 In our experiments we witness both cases: positive pressure with a convex wafer ͑Fig. 1a͒ and negative pressure ͑vacuum͒ with a concave wafer ͑Fig. 1b͒. Frictional measurements during polishing help characterize the interaction between the wafer, abrasive ͑slurry͒, and pad. 8 This in turn helps identify the removal rate and its dependence on the lubrication regime. 3,[9][10][11][12] The separation distance between the polishing pad and the wafer substrate during CMP can be characterized by the thickness of the slurry laye...