Abstract: The present invention is a polishing pad conditioning head for a CMP and similar types of apparatus that is especially useful in conditioning the surface of fixed-abrasive CMP polishing pads to maintain optimal process conditions for the planarization process on dielectric and metal films on semiconductor wafers, as well as wafers and disks used in computer hard disk drives. The polishing pad conditioning head comprises a substrate and a layer of fine-grain chemical vapor deposited polycrystalline diamond that is bonded onto the substrate. Alternatively, a thin sheet of polycrystalline diamond may be deposited on a preferred growth substrate by a chemical vapor deposition process, then removed from the growth substrate and then bonded to the CMP conditioning disk substrate.