Grinding, lapping and polishing basically work by making scratches in the body being ground, lapped or polished. The scratches typically are linear. The scratches gives rise to a directionality component of friction: the friction coefficient is less in the direction along the scratch than in a direction orthogonal, or across, the scratch. In a wafer handling/chucking situation, one wants the wafer to settle on the chuck, which involves the outer regions of the wafer moving radially with respect to the chuck. One can reduce friction in the radial direction by giving the lapping scratches a preferred orientation, namely, radial. This can be achieved by making the final passes of the lapping tool move predominantly in radial directions.

A wafer carrier comprises a first foil, a second foil, and a chamber between the first and the second foil. The first foil has a perforation and is used for carrying the wafer. The first and the second foil are connected to each other so as to form the chamber. The chamber is configured to be evacuated to form a vacuum in the chamber, the vacuum causes an underpressure at the perforation, the underpressure forms a carrying force to the wafer to be carried.

A blade changer unit includes a blade chuck for holding a cutting blade, a moving unit for moving the blade chuck, and a control unit for controlling moving unit. The blade chuck has a plurality of electrically conductive grippers for holding the cutting blade. The controller detects conduction between the grippers and a boss. The control unit includes a calculator for calculating the position of a central axis of the mount from coordinates where the conduction between the holder and the boss is detected when the moving unit is controlled to bring the grippers into contact with the mount at at least three points, and a mounting/dismounting controller for mounting and dismounting the cutting blade while the central axis of the blade chuck is aligned with the central axis of the mount calculated by the calculator.

A vacuum suction pad capable of making it more difficult to separate a substrate when the substrate is held by vacuum suction, the vacuum suction pad 8 including: a pad main body 37 having a lower surface adhered to a stage 5 of a substrate holder 2; and a plurality of circular arc-shaped substrate holding convexities 38, provided on a top surface of the pad main body 37, for holding a substrate W attracted by vacuum suction to the top surface of the pad main body 37, wherein the substrate holding convexities 38 are arranged concentrically with the circular pad main body 37, and width W1 in a radial direction of the substrate holding convexity 38 located on a radially outer side among the plurality of substrate holding convexities 38 is narrower than width W2 in the radial direction of the substrate holding convexity 38 on a radially inner side.

Aspects of a system for holding workpieces in place during processing are described. In an example, the system includes a distribution manifold coupled to a vacuum source, and multiple linear valves coupled to the distribution manifold, where each linear valve has a manifold with multiple openings and is adjustable to select one or more of the multiple openings to have a path to the vacuum source through the distribution manifold for providing a vacuum to hold a workpiece in place. In another example, the system includes a vacuum holder having a first array of openings, a system of linear valves positioned below the vacuum holder and having a second array of openings that aligns with the first array of openings, and a vacuum source that provides vacuum for holding a workpiece on the vacuum holder. A method for holding workpieces in place during processing using these systems is also described.

In a suction nozzle, a tip portion of an air pipe includes an opening portion having an area larger than that of a flow path of the air pipe, and a slit which is formed on the tip portion of the air pipe is provided in a portion of a circumferential contact surface contacting the component. In the suction nozzle, since air supplied from the air pipe flows out through the slit, the suction state of the component is canceled from the position of the slit as a base point.

A chuck table for holding a plate-shaped workpiece under suction includes a suction plate made of porous ceramics and having a plurality of open pores, and a frame covering a side surface and a reverse side, except an attractive suction surface, of the suction plate and having a plurality of suction grooves defined in an upper surface thereof and a fluid communication passage defined therein that holds the suction grooves in fluid communication with a suction source, the frame supporting the suction plate thereon. The suction plate has a porosity in the range from 60% to 70% by volume, and the open pores have diameters in the range from 10 m to 25 m.

A chuck for a machine tool having a rotation spindle with a main axis of rotation. The chuck comprises a base plate, a first rotatable plate eccentrically mounted on the base plate, a second rotatable plate eccentrically mounted on the first rotatable plate, balancing means for aligning a principal axis of inertia of the chuck with the main axis of rotation and a holding mechanism. The chuck is provided with an actuating mechanism for angularly displacing the first rotatable plate around a first rotation axis over a first angle of rotation and/or the second rotatable plate around a second rotation axis over a second angle of rotation such that the position of the object with respect to the main axis of rotation can be altered.

A laser beam applying unit of a laser processing apparatus includes a beam splitter disposed on a first optical path connecting a laser oscillator and a condenser, a wide band light source disposed on a second optical path branched by the beam splitter, a spectroscope that is disposed between the wide band light source and the beam splitter and that branches the laser beam from the second optical path to a third optical path, and a Z position detection unit that is disposed on the third optical path branched by the spectroscope and that detects the position in a Z-axis direction of a workpiece according to an intensity of light corresponding to the wavelength of return light that is generated when the light of the wide band light source is condensed by the condenser and is reflected by the workpiece held by a chuck table.

An expander unit of a cryogenic refrigerator device includes a moving assembly with a porous regenerative heat exchanger configured to move back and forth along a longitudinal axis. A magnetic spring assembly includes a stationary magnetic assembly fixed to the cold finger base that includes one or more magnetic rings fixedly arranged about a bore. A movable magnetic assembly includes one or more movable magnetic rings fixed to the moving assembly, An outer lateral dimension of each of the movable magnetic rings is less than an inner lateral dimension of the bore. The stationary magnetic assembly and the movable magnetic assembly are configured such that, when the moving assembly is displaced along the longitudinal axis from an equilibrium position, attractive and repulsive forces between the movable magnetic assembly and the stationary magnetic assembly yield a restoring force that is directed to restore the moving assembly to the equilibrium position.