Patent ID: 8277283

Claim:
A method for polishing a wafer, comprising steps of: obtaining a wafer that is cut from a single crystal ingot, the wafer having an end face and two planar surfaces, and the wafer having a diameter of not less than 450 mm; and simultaneously mirror polishing the end face and at least one of the two planar surfaces of the wafer, wherein the mirror polishing includes: providing a first polishing pad for polishing a first surface of the two planar surfaces of the wafer, the first polishing pad being sized to cover an entirety of the first surface of the two planar surfaces, providing a second polishing pad for polishing the end face of the wafer, the second polishing pad being supported by a guide for maintaining, during polishing, a position of the second polishing pad relative to the end face of the wafer, and a position of the first surface of the two planar surfaces of the wafer relative to the first polishing pad, and wherein the mirror polishing results in not more than 5000 particles of a size not less than 35 nm on the end face of the wafer.