Polishing apparatus and polishing method

Abstract

A polishing apparatus includes a polishing pad rotated by a surface plate rotating shaft about a surface plate axis, a slurry conduit supplying slurry to an upper surface of the polishing pad, a substrate holding mechanism holding a substrate, a substrate rotating shaft rotating the substrate holding mechanism about a substrate axis, and a rotating mechanism rotating the substrate axis or the surface plate axis about an eccentric axis. The angular velocity of rotation about the eccentric axis is set larger than the angular velocity of rotation about the substrate axis or the surface plate axis. Thus, the effective contact area between a small area on the substrate and the polishing pad is increased, biased wear of abrasive grains on the polishing pad is prevented, clogging of the polishing pad is suppressed, and new abrasive grains and new chemicals can be supplied with high efficiency to each area of the substrate. Thus, the polishing rate is improved.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.