Method of polishing semiconductor wafers and apparatus therefor

摘要

A method of polishing semiconductor wafers and apparatus therefor, wherein a semiconductor wafer (W) mounted on the lower side of a wafer mounting plate (19) may be polished on a polishing pad (32) by the front referenced polishing technique due to a flexibility of the wafer mounting plate to make the same conform in detail with the backside contour of the wafer under polishing pressure and a selected flexibility differential between a wafer holding region (20) and an outer moving region (21) of the wafer mounting plate (19). An apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is structured in such a manner that the wafer mounting plate (19) also functions as a vacuum chuck plate constructed of a flexible thin disc of hard plastics, a central round region is used for a wafer holding region (20) facing the backside of the wafer and an outside annular region is more flexible to function as a moving region (21).