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 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 gettering property evaluation apparatus includes a gettering determination unit and a chuck table. The gettering determination unit has a laser beam applying unit for applying a laser beam to a wafer, and a transmission-reception unit for applying a microwave to the wafer and receiving the microwave reflected by the wafer. The gettering determination unit determines whether or not a gettering layer including a grinding strain generated by grinding the wafer has a gettering property. The chuck table holds the wafer on a holding surface. The chuck table has a conductive nonmetallic porous member constituting the holding surface and having a property of reflecting or absorbing the microwave, and a base member provided with a negative pressure transmission passage for transmitting a negative pressure to the nonmetallic porous member.

A method of processing a workpiece includes sticking an adhesive layer side of a resin sheet having a layered structure that includes the adhesive layer and a base material layer, to a support base, forming surface irregularities on a face side of the base material layer that is opposite the adhesive layer; placing a face side of the workpiece and the face side of the base material layer in facing relation to each other and pressing the workpiece against the resin sheet or pressing the resin sheet against the workpiece, thereby bringing the workpiece into intimate contact with the resin sheet to fix the workpiece to the resin sheet; holding a surface of the support base that is opposite the resin sheet on a holding surface of a chuck table, and grinding a reverse side of the workpiece with a grinding stone disposed in facing relation to the holding surface.

A method for preparing a SiC ingot includes: preparing a reactor by disposing a raw material in a crucible body and disposing a SiC seed in a crucible cover, and then wrapping the crucible body with a heat insulating material having a density of 0.14 to 0.28 g/cc; and growing the SiC ingot from the SiC seed by placing the reactor in a reaction chamber and adjusting an inside of the reactor to a crystal growth atmosphere such that the raw material is vapor-transported and deposited to the SiC seed.

There is provided a grinding method that is applied when a workpiece having a first surface and a second surface is to be ground from the second surface. The grinding method includes a first grinding step of causing first grindstones to come into contact with the workpiece to grind the workpiece and thereby form on the workpiece a circular plate-shaped first thin plate portion and an annular first thick plate portion surrounding the first thin plate portion, and a second grinding step of causing second grindstones to come into contact with the first thick plate portion and the first thin plate portion to grind the workpiece and thereby form on the workpiece a thin circular plate-shaped second thin plate portion that has a larger diameter than the first thin plate portion and an annular second thick plate portion surrounding the second thin plate portion.

A method of processing a workpiece having electrodes embedded therein includes a holding step of holding a face side of the workpiece on a chuck table, a grinding step of, after the holding step, bringing grindstones of a grinding wheel into contact with a reverse side of the workpiece held on the chuck table while rotating the grinding wheel in a first direction, thereby grinding the workpiece until the electrodes are exposed on the reverse side of the workpiece, and an electrode processing step of, after the grinding step, processing the electrodes by bringing the grindstones into contact with the electrodes exposed on the reverse side of the workpiece held on the chuck table while rotating the grinding wheel in a second direction opposite the first direction.

A method of grinding a surface of a workpiece that has surface irregularities includes a first grinding step of grinding the surface of the workpiece by a predetermined amount of stock removal while keeping a measuring element of a height gauge out of contact with the surface of the workpiece, thereafter, a height difference measuring step of bringing the measuring element of the height gauge into contact with the surface of the workpiece and measuring a height difference of surface irregularities on the surface of the workpiece with the height gauge, and a second grinding step of, if the measured height difference is larger than a preset range, grinding the surface of the workpiece while keeping the measuring element of the height gauge in contact with the surface of the workpiece until the measured height difference falls within the preset range.

A polishing composition according to the present invention contains abrasive grains, a basic inorganic compound, an anionic water-soluble polymer, and a dispersing medium, in which a zeta potential of the abrasive grains is negative, an aspect ratio of the abrasive grains is 1.1 or less, in a particle size distribution of the abrasive grains obtained by a laser diffraction/scattering method, a ratio D90/D50 of a particle diameter D90 when an integrated particle mass reaches 90% of a total particle mass from a fine particle side to a particle diameter D50 when the integrated particle mass reaches 50% of the total particle mass from the fine particle side is more than 1.3, and the basic inorganic compound is an alkali metal salt.

There is disclosed a substrate processing apparatus which can align a center of a substrate with a central axis of a process stage with high accuracy to prevent a defective substrate from being produced. The substrate processing apparatus includes: an eccentricity detecting mechanism configured to obtain an amount of eccentricity and an eccentricity direction of a center of the substrate, held on the centering stage, from a central axis of the centering stage; and an aligner configured to align the center of the substrate with a central axis of a process stage. The aligner obtains, after the substrate is transferred from the centering stage to the process stage, an amount of eccentricity and an eccentricity direction of the center of the substrate from the central axis of the process stage by use of the eccentricity detecting mechanism; and confirms that the obtained amount of eccentricity of the center of the substrate from the central axis of the process stage is within a predetermined allowable range.