Patent 7677959 was granted and assigned to Applied Materials on March, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A polishing pad has a polishing layer with a polishing surface and a first registration mark, and a backing layer connected to the polishing layer and having a second registration mark aligned with the first registration mark. The polishing pad may have a window that includes an aperture in the backing layer aligned with a solid transparent portion in the polishing layer.