Patent ID: 7540800

Claim:
A method of rough-polishing a semiconductor wafer, which is conducted before mirror-finish polishing of the semiconductor wafer, for processing an etched surface of the semiconductor wafer to a constant roughness, the method comprising: polishing the surface of the semiconductor wafer while, in a continuous or phased manner, changing a polishing solution from a slurry containing colloidal silica to an alkali solution in accordance with progress of the polishing; wherein the polishing comprises a first polishing step of polishing the surface of the semiconductor wafer with the slurry containing colloidal silica, and a second polishing step of polishing the surface of the semiconductor wafer with the alkali solution; and wherein the method further comprises: detecting, in the first polishing step, a drive current value of a polishing table of a polishing apparatus for polishing the semiconductor wafer; calculating a load current of the polishing table based on the detected drive current of the polishing table; and determining a pH value of the alkali solution in the second polishing step based on the calculated load current.