Patent ID: 6935930

Claim:
A polishing system, comprising: a wafer working step part having a polishing pad on which a wafer is pressed to polish a surface of the wafer; a wafer transfer step part; a cleaning step part; a rinse step part; a drying step part; an inspection step part, a storage part which stores the wafer after working a housing which encloses at least said wafer working step part and shuts off the wafer from outside air; and an inert gas supply device which fills an inert gas into the housing; at least one control unit for monitoring operation of the polishing apparatus; a wafer storage chamber associated with at least one of the wafer working step part, the wafer transfer step part, the cleaning step part, the rinse step part, the drying step part, the inspection step part, and the storage part; and a wafer transfer device which is operative for transferring a wafer from said at least one of the wafer working step part, the wafer transfer step part, the cleaning step part, the rinse step part, the drying step part, the inspection step part, and the storage part to said wafer storage chamber when said at least one control unit detects occurrence of a problem with respect to operation of the polishing apparatus.