Patent ID: 7614939

Claim:
A polishing apparatus, comprising: at least two substrate carriers; a plurality of polishing stations, each polishing station including a polishing pad support to hold and independently move a polishing pad; a transfer station configured to load a substrate into a polishing head and to unload said substrate from the polishing head; a substrate carrier support system, the support system moveable between a first position in which the at least two carriers are positioned in different ones of the plurality of polishing stations, and a second position in which at least one of the at least two carriers is positioned at the transfer station; and a controller configured to selectively cause one of: a batch polishing process in which the carriers are loaded with substrates by the transfer station, the substrates are simultaneously polished at respective different ones of the polishing stations until the polishing process is complete, and the substrates are unloaded from the carriers by the transfer station, and a serial polishing process in which the carriers are loaded with substrates by the transfer station, each of the substrates is polished at a first of the polishing stations until a polishing process is partially complete, each of the substrates is polished at a second of the polishing stations until the polishing process is complete, and each of the substrates is unloaded from the carriers by the transfer station.