Patent ID: 7720562

Claim:
A polishing method for performing a plurality of polishing operations on a workpiece having a plurality of films to be polished, the method comprising: measuring a thickness of an uppermost-layer film of a first workpiece; after said measuring operation, performing a first polishing operation of polishing the uppermost-layer film for a first preset processing time; after said measuring operation, performing a second polishing operation of polishing a remaining portion of the uppermost-layer film and a next-layer film until a second preset processing time elapses after detecting a change of polishing object from the uppermost-layer film to the next-layer film; determining polishing rates of the uppermost-layer film in said first and second polishing operations based on the measured thickness of the uppermost-layer film and on a processing time taken to polish the uppermost-layer film in said first and second polishing operations; and measuring a thickness of a film forming an uppermost layer film of a predetermined subsequent workpiece, before polishing of the subsequent workpiece, and setting a new processing time for a first polishing operation of the subsequent workpiece.