Patent ID: 8038509
Filing Date: 2011-10-18
Classification: B24B

Abstract:
1. A chemical mechanical polishing apparatus, comprising: a carrier to hold a wafer; a polishing pad compressed onto the wafer via lifting, lowering and rotating operations to polish the wafer; a contact pressure sensor to detect contact pressure between the polishing pad and the wafer when the polishing pad is compressed onto the wafer; a support physical property controller to generate control signals corresponding to the contact pressure detected by the contact pressure sensor; a variable physical property support being adapted to come into close contact with the polishing pad and having physical properties varied in response to the control signals generated by the support physical property controller; a rotational table to hold the variable physical property support and being capable of lifting, lowering and rotating; and a conditioner to condition a polishing surface of the polishing pad before, during or after a polishing operation, wherein the conditioner adjusts an angle between an outer wall and the polishing surface of the polishing pad by conditioning the polishing surface of the polishing pad according to a preset process condition.