Abstract: A polishing apparatus for an outer peripheral portion of a wafer includes: a stage for horizontally holding a disc-shaped wafer; a rotation drive unit for rotating the stage around its center axis as a rotation axis; polishing heads having an inner circumferential surface mounted with polishing pads; and a polishing-head drive mechanism for bringing the polishing pads into contact with the outer peripheral portion of the wafer and sliding the polishing heads in a direction slanted relative to a center axis of the wafer or a vertical direction thereof under application of a predetermined polishing pressure to the outer peripheral portion of the wafer. The inner circumferential surface of each of the polishing heads is mounted with two or more types of the polishing pads having different physical property values in the vertical direction.

Abstract: In a method of manufacturing semiconductor wafers, front and back surfaces of the semiconductor wafers are simultaneously polished with a double-side polishing machine that includes: a carrier for accommodating the semiconductor wafer; and an upper press platen and a lower press platen for sandwiching the carrier. The method includes: accommodating the semiconductor wafer in the carrier while a thickness of the semiconductor wafer is set to be larger than a thickness of the carrier by 0 ?m to 5 ?m; and polishing the semiconductor wafer while feeding a polishing slurry to between the surfaces of the semiconductor wafer and surfaces of the press platens. In the polishing, an allowance of both surfaces of the semiconductor wafer is set at 5 ?m or less in total.

Abstract: In a method of manufacturing semiconductor wafers, front and hack surfaces of the semiconductor wafers are simultaneously polished with a double-side polishing machine that includes: a carrier for accommodating the semiconductor wafer; and an upper press platen and a lower press platen for sandwiching the carrier. The method includes: accommodating the semiconductor wafer in the carrier while a thickness of the semiconductor wafer is set to be larger than a thickness of the carrier by 0 ?m to 5 ?m; and polishing the semiconductor wafer while feeding a polishing slurry to between the surfaces of the semiconductor wafer and surfaces of the press platens. In the polishing, an allowance of both surfaces of the semiconductor wafer is set at 5 ?m or less in total.