US 6,183,342 B2 · Polishing apparatus

Abstract

The polishing apparatus can control the attitude of the top ring with respect to a surface of a turntable of a polishing apparatus is controlled so as to provide a uniform polish surface pressure across the entire polish surface. The polishing apparatus includes the turntable having an abrading surface, a top ring for holding an object to be polished to keep the object surface in moving contact with the abrading surface while rotating the turntable and the top ring, a magnetic bearing assembly for supporting a rotation shaft of the top ring by means of a thrust bearing device and at least one radial bearing device, and an attitude controller for controlling an orientation of the top ring with respect to the turntable through the magnetic bearing assembly.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A polishing apparatus for polishing a surface of an object to a high degree of flatness, said apparatus comprising:

a rotatable turntable having an abrading surface;
a rotatable top ring for holding the object surface against said abrading surface while said turntable and said top ring are rotated;
a bearing assembly rotatably supporting said top ring, said bearing assembly including at least one bearing device operable to change an orientation of said top ring;
and
an attitude controller connected to said bearing assembly and operable to control said orientation of said top ring and thereby to create an angle of inclination of the object surface relative to said abrading surface to be an optimum value to achieve a maximum degree of flatness of the polished object surface.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Polishing apparatus

Life of this patent

Polishing apparatus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims11