A method of processing a wafer includes a cutting step of cutting the face side of the wafer with a cutting blade to form grooves therein along projected dicing lines, a first inspecting step of capturing an image of the grooves formed in the cutting step and inspecting a state of a chip in the captured image of the grooves, a protecting member sticking step of sticking a protective member to the face side of the wafer, a grinding step of holding the protective member side of the wafer on a chuck table and grinding a reverse side of the wafer to thin the wafer to a finished thickness, thereby dividing the wafer into device chips, a second inspecting step of capturing an image of the grooves exposed on the reverse side of the wafer and inspecting a state of a chip in the captured image of the grooves.

There is provided a wafer grinding method of grinding a wafer having an orientation flat for indicating a crystal orientation in the condition where the wafer is held on a holding surface of a chuck table. The chuck table includes a suction holding portion for holding the wafer under suction and a frame portion surrounding the suction holding portion. The suction holding portion has a first cutout portion corresponding to the orientation flat, and the frame portion has a second cutout portion formed along the first cutout portion. The wafer grinding method includes a holding surface grinding step of grinding the holding surface by using abrasive members of a grinding wheel, and a wafer grinding step of grinding the wafer by using the abrasive members in the condition where the wafer is held on the holding surface ground by the abrasive members.

According to one embodiment, a substrate holding plate includes an inorganic material layer that has through holes and pores therein. The inorganic material layer has a first surface to which a flat surface of a substrate can be adhered for subsequent processing, such as polishing or the like. The pores of the inorganic material layer have an average diameter that is smaller than an average diameter of the through holes of the inorganic material layer.

There is provided a processing apparatus that polishes the back surface side of a wafer on which devices are formed on the front surface side. The processing apparatus includes a chuck table that holds the wafer and rotates and a polishing unit that forms scratches on the back surface side of the wafer while polishing the back surface side of the wafer. The processing apparatus includes also a scratch determining unit that determines whether or not the scratches exist on the back surface side of the wafer polished by the polishing unit and an informing unit that informs that a region in which the scratches do not exist is included in the wafer when a region for which it has been determined that the scratches do not exist by the scratch determining unit is included in the wafer.

In an embodiment, a method includes: performing a self-limiting process to modify a top surface of a wafer; after the self-limiting process completes, removing the modified top surface from the wafer; and repeating the performing the self-limiting process and the removing the modified top surface from the wafer until a thickness of the wafer is decreased to a predetermined thickness.

A wafer thinning method and a wafer structure are provided. In the wafer thinning method, a to-be-thinned wafer is provided, and the to-be-thinned wafer is grinded on a rear surface of the to-be-thinned wafer. Then, a first planarization process is performed on a rear surface of the grinded wafer to restore surface flatness of the grinded wafer, and a second planarization process is performed on a rear surface of the wafer obtained after the first planarization process is performed until a target thinned thickness is reached.

A wafer producing apparatus includes: an ingot grinding unit configured to grind and planarize an upper surface of an ingot held by a first holding table; a laser applying unit configured to apply a laser beam of such a wavelength as to be transmitted through the ingot to the ingot, with a focal point of the laser beam positioned at a depth corresponding to the thickness of a wafer to be produced from an upper surface of the ingot held by a second holding table, to form a peel-off layer; a wafer peeling unit configured to hold the upper surface of the ingot held by a third holding table and peel off the wafer from the peel-off layer; and a carrying tray having an ingot support section configured to support the ingot and a wafer support section configured to support the wafer.

The present embodiments provide a mechanism for computing a thickness of a scanned wafer shape to determine a profile, and computing a delta correction value and a polishing end point time by using a computed PV value by the profile and a set predicted PV value and reflecting the same on the polishing time of each wafer which is under polishing. Accordingly, excellent flatness of a wafer surface can be achieved and simultaneously, a plurality of controllers can be controlled simultaneously to reduce equipment cost.

The present disclosure provides a method of processing a substrate having a polysilicon layer. The substrate is loaded to a processing system. The processing system includes a polishing module and a cleaning module coupled to the polishing module. The polishing module includes at least a first platen and a second platen. Each of the platens includes a polishing pad for polishing the substrate. An abrasive slurry is applied on the first platen of the polishing module to perform planarization of the polysilicon layer. After planarization, the surface polysilicon layer is treated by a non-ionic surfactant solution to change the surface property to hydrophilic. In the post-CMP cleaning process, organic contaminates on the surface of the polysilicon layer are easily removed by HF solution and SC1 solution, without the need of additional H.sub.2SO.sub.4 cleaning process.

A double-head grinding machine includes a disc-shaped carrier ring having a support hole for supporting a silicon wafer, a rotation mechanism rotating the carrier ring around a center of the carrier ring, and a grinding wheel including a grinding stone for grinding the silicon wafer. The support hole is circular and has a center eccentric to the center of the carrier ring.