Disclosed herein is a processing machine including a processing unit and a workpiece holding unit. The processing unit has a processor wheel with a processor fixed on a lower surface of an annular base, and a mount fixed on a spindle, and processes a workpiece by the processor with the processor wheel mounted on the mount. The processor wheel has a plurality of flange portions arranged at equal angular intervals on an inner peripheral surface of the annular base and extending from the inner peripheral surface toward a center of the processor wheel. The mount has a plurality of clasp portions configured to clasp the flange portions, a plurality of springs biasing the clasp portions in an upward direction in an axial direction of the spindle, and a plurality of support portions configured to support the clasp portions movably in the axial direction.

A grinding apparatus includes a chuck table that holds a wafer on a holding surface; a grinding unit that has a spindle unit in which a spindle with an annular grindstone mounted to a tip thereof is rotatably supported and that grinds the wafer by use of the grindstone; a grinding feeding mechanism that puts the grinding unit into grinding feeding in a grinding feeding direction perpendicular to the holding surface; a first height gauge that measures the height of the holding surface; a second height gauge that measures the height of an upper surface of the wafer; and a calculation section that calculates the difference between the height of the holding surface and the height of the upper surface of the wafer, as the thickness of the wafer. In the grinding apparatus, the first height gauge and the second height gauge are disposed in the grinding unit.

A wafer processing method includes an outer edge removing step of removing an outer edge of a first wafer having a first wiring layer formed on a front surface thereof from the front surface, and a polishing step of polishing the first wiring layer on the front surface of the first wafer after the outer edge removing step.

A polishing head of a wafer polishing apparatus is provided with: a membrane head that can independently control a center control pressure pressing a center portion of a wafer, and an outer periphery control pressure pressing an outer peripheral portion of the wafer; an outer ring integrated with the membrane head so as to configure the outer peripheral portion of the membrane head; and a contact type retainer ring provided outside the membrane head. The membrane head has a central pressure chamber of a single compartment structure that controls the center control pressure, and an outer peripheral pressure chamber that is provided above the central pressure chamber, and that controls the outer periphery control pressure. A position of a lower end of the outer ring reaches at least a position of an inner bottom surface of the central pressure chamber.

A substrate processing system includes a first main surface grinding device configured to grind, while holding a substrate from below with a first main surface of the substrate facing upwards, the first main surface of the substrate; a first inverting device configured to invert the substrate ground by the first main surface grinding device; and a second main surface grinding device configured to grin, while holding the ground first main surface of the substrate from below with a second main surface of the substrate facing upwards, the second main surface of the substrate.

Processing device for uniformly grinding wafers held by a plurality of chucks, and a method for setting the processing device. A processing device includes a coarse grinding device and a fine grinding device that are provided in a column straddling over a holding device. The holding device includes: an index table; chucks concentrically disposed about a rotation shaft; a first movable support unit on the outer peripheral side of the chuck in the radial direction of the index table; and a first fixed support unit on the inner peripheral side of the chuck in the radial direction of the index table. The first movable support unit is interposed between the index table and the chuck, and can be freely expanded and contracted in a vertical direction.

Provided is a pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet that may be used for the grinding of a hard and brittle substrate in a backgrinding step for the hard and brittle substrate, the pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet being excellent in all of low contamination property, productivity, grinding accuracy, and peelability. The pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet of the present invention includes a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, wherein the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer has a thickness of from 1 μm to 300 μm, and wherein a microhardness H (Pa) of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer at 25° C. and the thickness, which is represented by h.sub.A (μm), of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer satisfy a relationship represented by the following expression (1). log H≥1.9385×log h.sub.A+4.2611 . . . (1)

A processing apparatus includes a processing unit grinding or polishing the reverse side, which is exposed upwardly, of a wafer, an infrared camera unit capturing an image of the wafer from the reverse side thereof and acquiring an image including the face side of the wafer, an information register having information on a pattern of structural objects which a wafer to be processed is to have on the face side, registered therein, and a determining unit determining that the wafer to be determined is a wafer to be processed if the pattern of structural objects which a wafer to be processed is to have on the face side is found on the wafer to be determined before being processed by the processing unit.

A substrate processing system configured to process a substrate includes an etching apparatus configured to etch the substrate; and a control device configured to control the etching apparatus. The etching apparatus includes a liquid supply nozzle configured to supply a processing liquid onto the substrate; a thickness measurement device provided as one body with the liquid supply nozzle, and configured to measure a thickness of the substrate without being in contact with the substrate; and a moving mechanism configured to move the liquid supply nozzle and the thickness measurement device in a horizontal direction. The control device controls the liquid supply nozzle, the thickness measurement device and the moving mechanism such that the thickness of the substrate is measured by the thickness measurement device while the liquid supply nozzle and the thickness measurement device are being moved in the horizontal direction.

A semiconductor wafer has a base material. The semiconductor wafer may have an edge support ring. A grinding phase of a surface of the semiconductor wafer removes a portion of the base material. The grinder is removed from or lifted off the surface of the semiconductor wafer during a separation phase. The surface of the semiconductor wafer and under the grinder is rinsed during the grinding phase and separation phase to remove particles. A rinsing solution is dispensed from a rinsing solution source to rinse the surface of the semiconductor wafer. The rinsing solution source can move in position while dispensing the rinsing solution to rinse the surface of the semiconductor wafer. The grinding phase and separation phase are repeated during the entire grinding operation, when grinding conductive TSVs, or during the final grinding stages, until the final thickness of the semiconductor wafer is achieved.