Polishing apparatus for finishing semiconductor wafer at high polishing rate under economical running cost

摘要

A polishing apparatus is equipped with a wafer holder and a pad conditioner concurrently changed to working position over a polishing pad, and the polishing pad grinds the semiconductor wafer under concurrent cleaning operation thereon so as to enhance the throughput of the polishing apparatus: grooves are formed in a wafer carrier of the wafer holder for sufficiently supplying polishing slurry to the semiconductor wafer, and a guide wall is provided over the polishing pad so as to cause the polishing slurry to partly return to a central area of the polishing pad.