Patent ID: 7708618

Claim:
A polishing apparatus for polishing a wafer to thereby flatten the wafer, said apparatus comprising: a load/unload block operable to receive a cassette storing a wafer therein; a transport block having a robot for moving the wafer, a polishing block having a polishing table and a top ring, said polishing block being operable to polish the surface of the wafer to thereby flatten the wafer; a cleaning block operable to clean the polished wafer; and a control block operable to memorize a first relative position of said robot of said transport block with respect to said cassette of said load/unload block through teaching and memorize a second relative position of said robot of said transport block with respect to said cleaning block, wherein said load/unload block, said transport block, said polishing block, and said cleaning block have control devices, respectively, which are installed independently of each other in respective blocks.