METHOD FOR PROCESSING A SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER USING DOUBLE-SIDE POLISHING

摘要

A method for simultaneously polishing front and back surfaces of a semiconductor wafer comprises the step of providing a polishing apparatus having a wafer carrier generally disposed between a first polishing pad and a second polishing pad. The first pad has a hardness significantly greater than a hardness of the second pad. The wafer is placed in the wafer carrier so that the front surface faces the first pad and so that the back surface faces the second pad. A polishing slurry is applied to at least one of the pads and the carrier, first pad and second pad are rotated. The front surface is brought into contact with the first pad and the back surface is brought into contact with the second pad for polishing the front and back surfaces of the wafer whereby less wafer material is removed from the back surface engaged by the second pad and the back surface has less gloss than the front surface after polishing.