Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) can lead to nanoscale damage in films and surface features due to normal and lateral deformations of the surface. Defects arise due to the synergistic effects of chemical and mechanical mechanisms. This occurrence increases with severity as feature sizes are on the same order as abrasive polishing particles and materials decrease in stiffness, as with advanced low-k dielectrics. Here, relationships describing the response of normal and lateral surface deformations have been developed experimentally and from contact modeling. This is achieved by atomic force microscopy nanoscratching with diamond tips in a KOH environment to simulate CMP processing conditions. The deformations are related to the applied normal load, friction coefficient, film properties, and line densities. The deformations are observed to have critical loads of 1 and 5 mu N associated with normal and lateral deformations, respectively, which are on the same order as actual CMP particle pressure estimates. (C) 2009 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3243852]