摘要 |
A chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) apparatus and method for polishing semiconductor wafers utilizes multiple wafer carriers to polish a corresponding number of semiconductor wafers on a single polishing pad in parallel. In one embodiment, the wafer carriers are used to transfer semiconductor wafers between one or more wafer transfer stations and the polishing pad. In other embodiments, one or more wafer transfer arms are used to transfer the semiconductor wafers between the wafer transfer station(s) and the wafer carriers. The CMP apparatus is configured to sequentially process semiconductor wafers to increase the throughput of the apparatus. In addition, the components of the CMP apparatus are arranged such that the footprint of the apparatus is minimized.
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