The effect of the interfacial temperature on the tribological aspects, electrochemical behavior, and on the modified surface generation during copper chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) was studied in this research. The surface oxidation rate and dissolution rate changes were investigated by electrochemical, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and dissolution rate experiments performed at different slurry temperatures. We present a justifying surface chemical analysis and electrochemical study to better understand the tribology and increase in the removal rate with temperature at the interface during CMP. This study emphasizes the role of chemistry and its sensitivity to temperature during copper CMP. (c) 2005 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.