Patent ID: 6976903

Claim:
Apparatus for chemical mechanical polishing of a semiconductor wafer having a wafer axis, comprising: a polishing pad having an axis of rotation; a chuck for urging the wafer against the pad with the wafer axis parallel to and displaced from the axis of rotation, the pad providing a polishing force that is eccentric with respect to the wafer axis; and a chuck support configured to resist a tilting force on the chuck resulting from the eccentric polishing force; the chuck support being configured with an array of bearing housings, each of the bearing housings having a housing axis parallel to the axis of rotation; the chuck support being further configured with a linear bearing shaft received within each respective one of the bearing housings of the array, each of the respective linear bearing housing and shaft received therein resisting the tilting force so that in response to the eccentric polishing force a motion of the bearing housings relative to the linear bearing shafts is substantially parallel to the axis of rotation.