Polishing apparatus

A polishing apparatus polishing a wafer, comprising:

• a chuck table that holds the wafer on an upper face thereof;
• and
• a polishing unit that polishes the wafer held by the chuck table,
• wherein the polishing unit includes a rotary spindle, a mounter fixed to a tip of the rotary spindle, and a polishing tool detachably mounted to the mounter,
• the polishing tool includes a circular annular support base communicating with a polishing liquid supply unit and provided in its center with a supply hole through which to pass a polishing liquid, and a polishing pad adhered to a support surface of the support base,
• the polishing pad is formed by putting solid-phase reaction particulates inducing a solid-phase reaction with silicon into a liquid binding material, impregnating a non-woven fabric with the resulting material and drying the impregnated non-woven fabric, and is formed with a plurality of grooves in an adhesion surface to be adhered to the support surface, and
• the non-woven fabric has a plurality of communication holes penetrating from the adhesion surface to a flat polishing surface which is a surface opposite to the adhesion surface, and the polishing liquid supplied from the supply hole is distributed into the plurality of grooves and is supplied to the polishing surface through the plurality of communication holes.