Chemical mechanical polishing method and apparatus

Abstract

An improved chemical mechanical polishing method of and apparatus (30) for performing CMP process on a plurality of semiconductor devices includes a plurality of carrier devices (14), each for receiving one of the plurality of semiconductor devices (22) such as a semiconductor wafer. A plurality of polishing pad mechanisms (12) associate with each of the carrier devices (14) so that each of the plurality of polishing pad mechanisms (12) separately and approximately simultaneously polishes one of the plurality of semiconductor devices (22). Control means controls the movement of each of the plurality of polishing pad mechanisms (12) relative to the associated semiconductor device (22) so that the semiconductor device (22) is separately polished. To minimize the adverse effects of gravity in the CMP process, the present invention may include a plurality of orienting mechanisms (38) for orienting each of the plurality of carrier devices (14) and each of the plurality of polishing pad mechanisms (12) in the vertical plane.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.