Wafer processing apparatus providing cleaning and etching units with separate shrouds and enclosing separate spinner tables

A wafer processing apparatus for processing a wafer, comprising:

• a chuck table for holding the wafer thereon;
• a grinding unit having a rotatable grinding wheel with an annular array of grindstones mounted thereon for grinding a surface of the wafer held on the chuck table;
• a cleaning unit for cleaning the wafer that has been ground by the grinding unit;
• and
• an etching unit for removing a strain from the ground surface of the wafer, wherein:
• the grinding wheel of the grinding unit is smaller in diameter than the wafer, enabling the grindstones mounted on the grinding wheel to thin down an inner region of the wafer that includes the ground surface, leaving an outer circumferential ring-shaped stiff portion on the wafer,
• the etching unit supplies an etching liquid to the inner region of the wafer inward of the outer circumferential ring-shaped stiff portion of the wafer to thereby remove a strain from the ground surface of the wafer,
• the grinding unit, the cleaning unit, and the etching unit are housed in a single apparatus and are configured such that the wafer is transferred directly from the grinding unit to the cleaning unit and then to the etching unit without being stored in a cassette or transferred to a separate apparatus, and
• both the cleaning unit and the etching unit include separate shrouds which are configured to enclose separate spinner tables during respective liquid processing.