Abstract: A carrier and a polishing apparatus are designed to improve the mass producibility of wafers while using a retainer ring formed by a soft material. A rubber sheet 4 is bonded to the bottom surface of a carrier body 2 of the carrier 1 to define a pressure chamber R, a retainer ring 13 formed by a soft material such as EG is bonded to the bottom surface of the sheet 4. A margin block 40 is provided projecting out from the bottom side of the sheet 4, and the thickness of the retainer ring 13 is set to be substantially equal to the sum of the thickness L1 of the margin block 40 and the thickness L2 of the wafer W.

Abstract: A carrier comprising a disk-shaped body portion having fluid circulation holes, a ring-shaped diaphragm portion expanding outward from the outer peripheral surface of the body portion and having pliability, a ring-shaped edge portion projecting at least downward from an outer edge portion of the diaphragm portion and having an inner diameter of at least an outer diameter of a work piece, a pliable sheet having an outer peripheral portion affixed air tightly to a bottom end portion of said edge portion, the back surface of the sheet defining a single pressure chamber communicating with the fluid circulation holes, and a ring-shaped member surrounding the work piece affixed to the bottom surface of the sheet.

Abstract: The bottom of each collection groove for collecting a used abrasive slurry and a rinsing solution is formed like the letter V, an exhaust port is formed at the lowest position of the bottom of the groove, the collection pipe of a slurry supply unit and the collection pipe of a rinsing solution supply unit are connected to the exhaust port, and the collection pipe of the rinsing solution exhaust unit is connected to a suction pump for forcedly discharging the rinsing solution by suction.

Abstract: A carrier and CMP apparatus which improve the uniformity of polishing in a wafer or other workpiece and increase the margin of the amount of wear of the retainer ring to improve the operating rate of the CMP apparatus. A carrier 1 is constituted by a housing 10, a carrier base 11, a retainer ring 12, a sheet supporter 13, a hard sheet 18, and a soft backing sheet 19. The sheet supporter 13 is formed by a supporter body portion 14 having an air opening 14a communicating with an air outlet/inlet 11b of the carrier base 11, a flexible diaphragm 15, and an edge ring 16. Therefore, a wafer W is uniformly pressed by the air pressure in the pressure chamber R and fluctuation in the force pressing against the outer peripheral rim of the wafer W caused by the wear of the retainer ring 12 is countered by the diaphragm 15.

Abstract: A method for flattening an inter-layer insulating film of a semiconductor device of a multi-wiring is carried out with a chemical-mechanical polishing process by using an apparatus, which includes two-layer polishing cloth having an unwoven cloth and a hard foamed layer affixed on a support plate. In order to fluff on a surface of the hard foamed layer or recreate on the whole surface thereof, a tool is provided on the polishing cloth. A silicon wafer is held through a backing pad so that an insulating film of a semiconductor device formed on the wafer is polished by the polishing cloth by rotation of the support plate and the wafer, and at the same time the surface layer of the polishing cloth is fluffed by the tool provided with a polishing surface having the curvature as that of the backing pad. Therefore, a polishing rate can be kept stable, and uniformity of polishing quantity is improved.

Abstract: A flat lapping machine with an ultrasonic sizing mechanism for automatically lapping the work, such as a semiconductor wafer and a magnetic disk substrate, to the present desired thickness. The flat lapping machine permits high-precision thickness measurement or sizing and uniform work lapping by assuring stable propagation of ultrasonic waves by eliminating such noise-induced waveform disturbance as might occur when slurried abrasive is used as the propagation medium and such localized dilution of slurried abrasive as might occur when water is used as the propagation medium. The flat lapping machine may have a sizing mechanism for automatically lapping the work to the preset desired thickness based on the difference between the preset and measured thicknesses of the work. The machine comprises top and bottom rotatable lapping surface plates and a transducer attached to the top surface plate in a position opposite to the work to send out ultrasonic waves to the work to determine its thickness.

Abstract: Described herein is a flat lapping machine capable of precision-abrading simultaneously flat surfaces on the front and rear sides of a work in the fashion of lapping, polishing and grinding machines. The present invention contemplates to provide a flat lapping machine which is simplified in construction as compared with conventional flap lapping machines having a large number of carriers in planetary motions, and which can stop the respective carriers easily in specific positions and directions at the end of a lapping operation. To this end, the present invention employs a large number of support gear mechanisms each constituted by a plural number of small gears and located at uniform intervals around a center gear, rotatably supporting the respective carriers in predetermined positions while the respective carriers are driven by the center gear.