Abstract: A polishing pad including a disc-shaped base to be mounted to a tip end of a rotatable spindle and a pad portion fixed to one end surface of the base has at least a polishing surface of the pad portion coated with a resin film until before the polishing pad is mounted to the spindle. A polishing method for polishing a wafer with a polishing pad includes a polishing pad mounting step of mounting the polishing pad to the tip end of the spindle, a separating step of separating the resin film from the pad portion, a holding step of holding the wafer on a holding surface of a chuck table, and a polishing step of polishing the wafer by individually rotating the polishing pad and the chuck table while the pad portion and the wafer are brought into contact with each other.

Abstract: A method of laying a protective sheet on a face side of a wafer includes preparing a first protective sheet having, on one surface thereof, a non-adhesive portion to be coextensive with a device region of the wafer and an adhesive portion to be positioned along an outer circumferential excessive region of the wafer, affixing the one surface of the first protective sheet to the face side of the wafer, dropping a liquid resin onto a surface of a second protective sheet that has surface irregularities ranging from Ra 0.2 to 7 ?m and is free of an adhesive layer, bringing another surface of the first protective sheet into facing relation to the surface of the second protective sheet onto which the liquid resin has been dropped, and curing the liquid resin.

Abstract: A method of placing a protective member on a workpiece includes a sheet producing step of heating a plate-shaped thermoplastic resin to soften or melt the same while gripping and pulling outer edges of the thermoplastic resin in at least four directions to produce a sheet-like protective member, and after the sheet producing step, an integrating step of heating and bringing the sheet-like protective member into intimate contact with the workpiece to integrate the workpiece and the protective member with each other.

Abstract: Provided is a polishing liquid supply device capable of selectively supplying a plurality of different polishing liquids to a vessel for storing the polishing liquid used in a polishing apparatus. The polishing liquid supply device includes a plurality of ejection nozzles provided according to the plurality of different polishing liquids, a sensor that detects a position corresponding to one of the plurality of ejection nozzles at which a supplied port of the vessel is disposed, a storage device that stores information concerning the polishing liquid selected from the plurality of polishing liquids, and a processing device that performs a control to eject the polishing liquid from the ejection nozzle corresponding to the polishing liquid indicated by the information stored in the storage device.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a small-diameter wafer from a wafer having one face and the other face, the one face being mirror-polished, is provided. The method includes a protective member covering step of covering the one face of the wafer with a first protective member and the other face of the wafer with a second protective member, a cut-out step of cutting out a plurality of small-diameter wafers from the wafer covered with the first protective member and the second protective member, a chamfering step of chamfering an outer periphery portion of each of the plurality of small-diameter wafers, and a protective member removing step of removing the first protective member and the second protective member from each of the plurality of small-diameter wafers.