A polishing method which can remove foreign matters from an entire back surface of a substrate at a high removal rate is provided. The polishing method includes placing a polishing tool in sliding contact with an outer circumferential region of a back surface of a substrate while holding a center-side region of the back surface of the substrate, and placing a polishing tool in sliding contact with the center-side region of the back surface of the substrate while holding a bevel portion of the substrate to polish the back surface in its entirety.

A method of producing a carrier for use in a double-side polishing apparatus, the method including engaging an insert with a holding hole formed in a carrier body and sticking the insert to the holding hole, the carrier body being configured to be disposed between upper and lower turn tables to which polishing pads are attached of the double-side polishing apparatus, the holding hole being configured to hold a wafer during polishing, the insert being configured to contact an edge of the wafer to be held, the method including: performing a lapping process and a polishing process on the insert; engaging the insert subjected to the lapping process and the polishing process with the holding hole of the carrier body; and sticking and drying the engaged insert while applying a load to the insert in a direction perpendicular to main surfaces of the carrier body.

A method and apparatus for on-line measurement of the wafer thinning and grinding force, related to the field of ultra-precision machining of semiconductor wafer materials. The grinding force measuring apparatus comprises a semiconductor wafer, a worktable, a bearing table, a thin film pressure sensor, and a data processing and wireless transmission module. The grinding force measuring method includes sensor calibration based on the testing device and on-line measurement of grinding force. Using the grinding force measuring device and method provided by the invention, the grinding force in the semiconductor wafer grinding process can be monitored in real time, which is of great significance for semiconductor processing and reducing grinding damage. The invention also has the following characteristics: the sensor adopts a film pressure sensor, the response time is short, and the test precision is high; the data transmission adopts a wireless transmission design, thus the grinding force can be monitored in real time during the wafer and spindle rotation process and the risk of winding during wafer rotation can be avoided. The sensor adopts a distributed design, which can monitor the distribution of the grinding force along the wafer radial direction or crystal orientation.

There is provided a cutting machine for cutting a wafer using a cutting blade. The cutting machine includes a shape storage section, a shape measurement unit, a determination section, and an end face correction device. The shape storage section stores a cross-sectional shape of a support surface, which a mount of a cutting unit has, in an axial direction of a spindle. The shape measurement unit contactlessly measures the cross-sectional shape of the support surface in the axial direction of the spindle. Through a comparison between the cross-sectional shape stored in the shape storage section and the cross-sectional shape measured by the shape measurement unit, the determination section determines whether or not the support surface needs a correction. The end face correction device corrects a shape of the support surface.

An inspecting device includes a stage configured to support a wafer in which a plurality of rows of modified regions are formed in a semiconductor substrate, a light source configured to output, an objective lens configured to pass light propagated through the semiconductor substrate, a light detection part configured to detect light passing through the objective lens, and an inspection part configured to inspect a tip position of a fracture in an inspection region between a back surface and the modified region closest to the back surface of the semiconductor substrate. The objective lens aligns a focus from the back surface side in an inspection region. The light detection part detects light propagating from the front surface side of the semiconductor substrate to the back surface side.

A substrate processing apparatus configured to process a substrate includes a substrate holder configured to hold, in a combined substrate in which a first substrate and a second substrate are bonded to each other, the second substrate; a periphery removing unit configured to remove, starting from a periphery modification layer formed on the first substrate along a boundary between a peripheral portion to be removed and a central portion of the first substrate, the peripheral portion from the combined substrate held by the substrate holder; and a collection unit equipped with a collection mechanism configured to collect the peripheral portion removed by the periphery removing unit.

A grinding method includes a step of imaging a bonded workpiece by a camera in such a manner as to include the outer circumference of a workpiece and the outer circumference of a support component with a larger diameter than that of the workpiece before a step of holding the support component of the bonded workpiece by a holding surface. The grinding method also includes a step of recognizing the outer circumference of the support component and the outer circumference of the workpiece on the basis of the brightness difference between pixels adjacent to each other in a taken image and a step of recognizing the center of the support component from the recognized outer circumference of the support component and recognizing the center of the workpiece from the recognized outer circumference of the workpiece.

A wafer processing method in which a wafer including devices on a front surface side is processed. The method includes a wafer-with-protective-component forming step of forming the wafer with a protective component through sticking the protective component formed of a resin that softens by heat to the front surface side by pressing and heating the protective component, a thickness measurement step of measuring a thickness of the protective component in the wafer with the protective component, and a grinding step of holding the wafer with the protective component by a chuck table and grinding a back surface side of the wafer until a thickness of the wafer becomes an intended finished thickness. In the grinding step, the thickness of the protective component measured in the thickness measurement step is subtracted from a total thickness of the wafer with the protective component to calculate the thickness of the wafer.

A composition for semiconductor processing comprises: polishing particles; a thiazolinone compound; and a solvent, wherein a logarithmic reduction factor of a microorganism in the composition, as calculated by Formula 1, is at least 4:

Logarithmic reduction factor=log(CFU.sub.0/CFU.sub.x)  Formula 1 where CFU.sub.0 is an initial concentration (CFU/mL) of the microorganism, CFU.sub.x is a concentration (CFU/mL) of the microorganism remaining after standing at room temperature for X days, and X is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6.

A {100} indium phosphide (InP) wafer has multiplies of olive-shaped etch pits on the back side surface of the wafer, wherein the olive shape refers to a shape with its both ends being narrow and its middle being wide, e.g., an oval shape. A method of manufacturing the {100} indium phosphide wafer comprises: etching the wafer by immersing it into an etching solution to produce etch pits; washing the wafer with deionized water; protecting the back side surface of the wafer; mechanical polishing and chemical polishing the front side surface of the wafer, and then washing it with deionized water; de-protecting the back side surface of the wafer; wherein the etching solution comprises an acidic substance, deionized water and an oxidizing agent. The wafer can be heated uniformly during the epitaxial growth and thus displays good application effect.