Polishing apparatus
AssigneeEbara Corporation
InventorsMitsuo Tada, Kazuo Shimizu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A polishing apparatus comprises a polishing table having a polishing surface and a top ring for holding a substrate to be polished, in which the substrate held by the top ring is pressed against the polishing surface of the polishing table and thus polished. A capacitance type sensor and/or an eddy-current type sensor is disposed in one or more location(s) in the vicinity of the top ring. The capacitance type sensor detects the escaping of the substrate to be polished based on a change in capacitance between the capacitance type sensor and a top surface of the polishing table. The eddy-current type sensor detects the escaping of the substrate to be polished based on a change in electrical resistance between the eddy-current type sensor and the top surface of the polishing table.
Claims12
A polishing apparatus comprising:
- a polishing table having a polishing surface;
- a workpiece holding mechanism for holding a workpiece to be polished, the workpiece held by said workpiece holding mechanism being pressed against said polishing surface of said polishing table so that said workpiece is polished through a relative motion of the workpiece to said polishing surface of said polishing table;
- and
- at least one of a capacitance type sensor, an eddy-current type sensor, and a combination of said capacitance type sensor with said eddy-current type sensor being disposed in at least one location in a vicinity of a workpiece holding section of said workpiece holding mechanism,
- said capacitance type sensor detecting an escaping of the workpiece to be polished based on a change in capacitance between said capacitance type sensor and a surface of said polishing table,
- said eddy-current type sensor detecting the escaping of the workpiece to be polished based on a change in electrical resistance between said eddy-current type sensor and the surface of said polishing table.
A polishing apparatus, comprising
- a polishing surface;
- a workpiece holding mechanism for holding a workpiece to be polished;
- a positioning apparatus for positioning said workpiece holding mechanism with respect to said polishing surface so that the workpiece to be polished, which is held by said workpiece holding mechanism, can be pressed against said polishing surface;
- a relative motion generating apparatus for generating a relative motion between said workpiece to be polished, which is held by said workpiece holding mechanism, and said polishing surface so as to thereby polish said workpiece to be polished;
- and
- a detecting apparatus for detecting escaping of said workpiece to be polished from said workpiece holding mechanism,
- said detecting apparatus including at least one of a capacitance type sensor and an eddy-current type sensor,
- said capacitance type sensor measuring a capacitance between said capacitance type sensor and said polishing surface;
- and
- said eddy-current type sensor measuring an electrical resistance between said eddy-current type sensor and said polishing surface;
- said detecting apparatus further including at least associated one of a first control section which detects the escaping of the workpiece to be polished from said workpiece holding mechanism based on a change in said capacitance supplied from said capacitance type sensor and a second control section which detects the escaping of the workpiece to be polished from said workpiece holding mechanism based on a change in said electrical resistance supplied from said eddy-current type sensor.
A polishing apparatus comprising:
- a polishing table having a polishing surface;
- a workpiece holding mechanism for holding a workpiece to be polished, the workpiece held by said workpiece holding mechanism being pressed against said polishing surface of said polishing table so that said workpiece is polished through a relative motion of the workpiece to said polishing surface of said polishing table;
- and
- an eddy-current type sensor being disposed in at least one location in a vicinity of a workpiece holding section of said workpiece holding mechanism,
- said eddy-current type sensor detecting the escaping of the workpiece to be polished based on a change in electrical resistance between said eddy-current type sensor and the surface of said polishing table.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.