A double-side polishing method of polishing both surfaces of a wafer by holding the wafer with a carrier including a holding hole configured to hold the wafer and a ring-shaped resin insert disposed along an internal circumference of the holding hole, the resin insert having an inner circumferential surface configured to contact a peripheral portion of the wafer, interposing the carrier between upper and lower turn tables to which polishing pads are attached, polishing both the surfaces of the wafer while maintaining planarity of the inner circumferential surface at or below 100 m and verticalness of the inner circumferential surface at or below 5. The method can inhibit the degradation of the flatness of the polished wafer, such as particularly an outer circumferential sag, due to variation in shape of the inner circumferential surface of the resin insert of a carrier.

A workpiece processing apparatus including: a center drum that is rotatable around a rotation axis and has at least one first groove formed in the axial direction on the peripheral surface, a carrier having a holding hole to insert and hold a workpiece to be processed, an upper and lower turn table that are rotatable around the rotation axis in a state wherein the carrier holding workpiece is interposed, at least one hook fitted in the upper turn table's internal circumference, with the tip being inserted into the first groove and movable along first groove; wherein the center drum has at least one second groove formed in the axial direction on peripheral surface, and second groove has a length different from that of the first groove and has a supporting surface to support the hook from below at a position above a position where upper turn table processes the workpiece.

A workpiece processing apparatus including: a center drum that is rotatable around a rotation axis and has at least one first groove formed in the axial direction on the peripheral surface, a carrier having a holding hole to insert and hold a workpiece to be processed, an upper and lower turn table that are rotatable around the rotation axis in a state wherein the carrier holding workpiece is interposed, at least one hook fitted in the upper turn table's internal circumference, with the tip being inserted into the first groove and movable along first groove; wherein the center drum has at least one second groove formed in the axial direction on peripheral surface, and second groove has a length different from that of the first groove and has a supporting surface to support the hook from below at a position above a position where upper turn table processes the workpiece.

Automatic handling apparatus having a suction-head sucking and holding a workpiece, an arm is connected to and moves the suction-head, and a stage on which the workpiece to be carried to the carrier holding hole is mounted, the suction-head has a movable section which is movable within a parallel plane to the suction-head body, the movable section to suck and hold the workpiece, and has positioning pins stretched in vertically lower direction and, at loading time, the workpiece held by the movable section into the carrier holding hole, the positioning pins are appressed against tooth-bottoms of a gear on the carrier outer periphery and movable section moving within the parallel plane. The carrier is pushed against the sun gear side to fix the carrier position and direction, and the held workpiece is carried into the holding hole. Consequently, the automatic handling apparatus load the workpiece into the carrier holding hole.

A polishing apparatus for double-sided polishing of semiconductor wafers including a first platen, a second platen, a wafer carrier, and a controller is disclosed. The controller is configured to perform operations including determining whether a batch of the semiconductor wafers is loaded on the wafer carrier for double-sided polishing and retrieving specification for the batch of semiconductor wafers. The operations include based on the retrieved specification, determining an amount of tuning required for one or more flatness control parameters, and based on the amount of tuning required for the one or more flatness control parameters, identifying, or generating a recipe to perform the double-sided polishing on the batch of the semiconductor wafers. The operations include storing statistical process control (SPC) feedback data in a database to perform one or more additional iterations of the double-sided polishing on the batch of the semiconductor wafers.

A carrier for use in a polishing machine and a method for using the carrier during the polishing of glass substrate disks intended for use in the hard disk media of a hard disk drive. Grooves are provided in top and bottom surfaces of the carrier to, e.g., increase the flow of polishing slurry between the carrier and a pair of upper and lower polishing pads of the polishing machine during a polishing operation. Opposing grooves within the top and bottom surfaces of the carrier may be staggered or offset relative to one another. Slurry passage holes may be provided in the carrier that intersect with the grooves to allow for the passage of slurry into the grooves during polishing. Method and apparatus examples are described.

Automatic handling apparatus having a suction-head sucking and holding a workpiece, an arm is connected to and moves the suction-head, and a stage on which the workpiece to be carried to the carrier holding hole is mounted, the suction-head has a movable section which is movable within a parallel plane to the suction-head body, the movable section to suck and hold the workpiece, and has positioning pins stretched in vertically lower direction and, at loading time, the workpiece held by the movable section into the carrier holding hole, the positioning pins are appressed against tooth-bottoms of a gear on the carrier outer periphery and movable section moving within the parallel plane. The carrier is pushed against the sun gear side to fix the carrier position and direction, and the held workpiece is carried into the holding hole. Consequently, the automatic handling apparatus load the workpiece into the carrier holding hole.

[Problem] To provide a method for producing a polished object, which can remarkably reduce a haze level on a surface of the object to be polished while defects are significantly reduced. [Solution] A method for producing a polished object, which includes a double-side polishing step in which an object to be polished is subjected to double-side polishing using a double-side polishing composition including first abrasive grains having an average primary particle diameter of 40 nm or more and a nitrogen-containing water-soluble polymer to obtain a double-side polished object; and a single-side polishing step in which the double-side polished object is subjected to single-side polishing using a single-side polishing composition including second abrasive grains having an average primary particle diameter of 40 nm or less and a water-soluble polymer, and in which a ratio of an average primary particle diameter (A) of the first abrasive grains with respect to an average primary particle diameter (B) of the second abrasive grains (A)/(B) is more than 1 and 2.5 or less.

[Problem] To provide a method for producing a polished object, which can remarkably reduce a haze level on a surface of the object to be polished while defects are significantly reduced. [Solution] A method for producing a polished object, which includes a double-side polishing step in which an object to be polished is subjected to double-side polishing using a double-side polishing composition including first abrasive grains having an average primary particle diameter of 40 nm or more and a nitrogen-containing water-soluble polymer to obtain a double-side polished object; and a single-side polishing step in which the double-side polished object is subjected to single-side polishing using a single-side polishing composition including second abrasive grains having an average primary particle diameter of 40 nm or less and a water-soluble polymer, and in which a ratio of an average primary particle diameter (A) of the first abrasive grains with respect to an average primary particle diameter (B) of the second abrasive grains (A)/(B) is more than 1 and 2.5 or less.

The invention is directed to a double-disc grinding apparatus including: a rotatable ring holder configured to support a sheet workpiece along a circumferential direction from an outer circumference side of the workpiece; a pair of grinding wheels for grinding surfaces of the workpiece supported by the ring holder; and a hydrostatic bearing for supporting the ring holder without contact from both of a direction of a rotational axis of the ring holder and a direction perpendicular to the rotational axis by hydrostatic pressure of fluid supplied from both directions, wherein supply pressures at which the fluid is supplied from the direction of the rotational axis and from the direction perpendicular to the rotational axis can be independently controlled. The invention provides a double-disc grinding apparatus and a workpiece double-disc grinding method that can improve variation in nanotopography depending on the lot of workpieces or grinding wheels to obtain nanotopography stably.