Abstract: The present invention is a workpiece holder for polishing comprising at least a workpiece holder body having multiple perforated holes for holding a workpiece by vacuum adsorption and a back plate disposed on the back side of the body, which is provided with temperature controlling means or cooling means for the holder body. Thus, there is provided a workpiece holder for polishing, a polishing apparatus and a polishing method, which can provide a workpiece having good flatness by suppressing thermal deformation of the workpiece holder body and deformation of a resin film coated on the workpiece holding surface without degrading flatness of a workpiece held on the workpiece holder in the polishing of the workpiece, even when the number of polishing operation increases.

Abstract: The present invention is a workpiece holder for polishing comprising at least a workpiece holder body having multiple perforated holes for holding a workpiece by vacuum adsorption and a back plate disposed on the back side of the body, which is provided with temperature controlling means or cooling means for the holder body. Thus, there is provided a workpiece holder for polishing, a polishing apparatus and a polishing method, which can provide a workpiece having good flatness by suppressing thermal deformation of the workpiece holder body and deformation of a resin film coated on the workpiece holding surface without degrading flatness of a workpiece held on the workpiece holder in the polishing of the workpiece, even when the number of polishing operation increases.

Abstract: An automatic workpiece transport apparatus for a double-side polishing machine is disclosed. A carrier is positioned at a predetermined position by a positioning unit, and an image of the top surface of the carrier is captured by use of a visual sensor. A computer performs image processing to obtain the center coordinates of the wafers or the workpiece holders while reference marks or the like provided on the carrier are used as references. The transport robot is moved and controlled based on the thus-detected coordinate data in order to load the wafers into the workpiece holders or to unload the wafers from the workpiece holders. Further, two visual sensors are provided at the tip end of the arm of the transport robot. These visual sensors send to the computer an image of the peripheral portion of the held wafer. Thus, the computer performs fine adjustment in positioning the wafer and the workpiece.

Abstract: An improvement is proposed in the method for the preparation of a magnetic recording medium by forming a magnetic recording layer of a magnetic alloy on the surface of a non-magnetic substrate plate of, e.g., silicon so as to impart the magnetic recording medium with improved CSS (contact-start-stop) characteristics still without affecting the magnetic recording density. The improvement can be obtained by subjecting the surface of the substrate plate, prior to the formation of the magnetic recording layer, to a surface-roughening treatment which is performed either by a dry-process such as plasma etching and reactive ion etching or by a wet-process of anisotropic etching by using an aqueous solution of sodium or potassium hydroxide as the anisotropic etching solution. In particular, the plasma etching or reactive ion etching is conducted in the presence of a particulate scattering source body of aluminum, etc.