Patent ID: 9457448
Filing Date: 2016-10-04
CPC Classification: B24B,H01L

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus for polishing a periphery of a substrate with a polishing tape, the periphery is defined as an outside portion of a central portion for fabricating electronic circuits, said apparatus comprising: a rotatable substrate holder to hold and rotate the substrate; a tape supply and recovery device having a tape supply unit, tape guides, and a tape recovery unit, for extending the polishing tape from the tape supply unit to the tape recovery unit via the tape guides; a pressing device having a pressing member to press the polishing tape between the tape guides against the periphery of the rotating substrate, wherein the pressing member has a through-hole whose one end is open to a bottom surface of the pressing member and the other end is connected to a vacuum line; a first mechanism to move the pressing device to a position above the periphery of the rotating substrate so that an edge of the bottom surface of the pressing member is tangential to a boundary coaxial circle of the substrate which separates the central portion from the periphery of the substrate; a second mechanism to move the tape supply and recovery device for locating the polishing tape between the tape guides beneath the pressing member, and to adjust the position of a longitudinal edge of the polishing tape to an edge of the pressing member, a liquid supply device having a liquid supply nozzle for supplying a liquid to a center of the rotating substrate to cover a surface of the central portion of the substrate with the liquid by centrifugal force; and a controller for controlling the first mechanism, the second mechanism, and the vacuum line to perform adjusting the position of the polishing tape between the tape guides to the pressing member, securing the polishing tape to the bottom surface of the pressing member by evacuating the through-hole of the pressing member after touching an upper surface of the polishing tape with the bottom surface of the pressing member by vertically moving the pressing member or the tape supply and recovery device, and polishing the surface of the periphery of the substrate by lowering the pressing member with the secured polishing tape to touch the peripheral portion of the rotating substrate so that the longitudinal edge of the polishing tape is tangential to the boundary coaxial circle of the substrate, while a surface of the central portion of the rotating substrate is covered by the liquid supplied from the liquid supply nozzle to prevent a debris generated by the polishing of the peripheral portion from contacting the surface of the central portion of the substrate.