A buffing apparatus which can buff a thin plate work without causing buckling. The buffing apparatus comprises a plurality of buffing rolls removably secured in a predetermined spaced relationship from each other to a shaft which is driven to rotate, a backup roll disposed in parallel to the buffing rolls and extending over the overall length of all of the buffing rolls, and a holding roll disposed at least between each adjacent ones of the buffing rolls. The holding roll is positioned such that...

An apparatus for surface treatment of polishing cloth includes a rotary cloth mounting section on which a polishing cloth is to be attached, and a rotary surface treatment tool made of an inorganic material other than metal and having at least a protrusion with an irregular surface portion on the surface thereof. The surface treatment tool and the cloth mounting section is rotated and a position of a rotation axis of a first rotating unit is different from that of a rotation axis of a second rot...

A dressing method comprises the steps of rotating a rotary dresser at a high speed for dressing a surface of the grindstone, previous to contact of the rotary dresser with the surface of the grindstone, and detecting a rotational vibration caused by a bearing adapted to support the rotary dresser in rotation, by use of a vibration sensor for detecting a contact vibration having a specific frequency band generated when the rotary dresser in rotation comes into contact with the grindstone. Providi...

A substrate polishing apparatus for polishing a polishing surface of a substrate has a film thickness monitoring device for monitoring a state of a film thickness of a thin film on the polishing surface of the substrate during polishing. The apparatus includes a table, a polishing member fixed on a surface of the table, a substrate support member for pressing the substrate onto the polishing member, an optical system composed of an optical fiber for irradiating the polishing surface of the subst...

A gear shaper machine system drives and maneuvers a hone tool to generate teeth geometry in a manner the teeth were machined prior to a hardening process. After heat treatment, the hone tool is indexed to the teeth geometry spacing of the workpiece so as to divide the stock removal evenly between the drive and coast sides. The hone tool may be driven with rotational and reciprocating synchronous teeth generating motion in which the hone tool reciprocates along the length of the teeth parallel to...

In a thickness-measuring method during a grinding process, which suppresses wear of a probe coming into contact with a chuck table subjected to self-grind and accurately grinds a workpiece, measurement of wafer thickness is performed only at the commencement and termination of grinding, and a reference probe of a reference side height gauge is separated from the upper surface of the chuck table in the practical grinding time between the commencement and termination so as to interrupt the measure...

A sanding tool includes a handle assembly and a head assembly having a sanding member. The sanding tool also includes at least one pivot member that pivotably couples the handle assembly and the head assembly such that the head assembly is pivotable about a plurality of different axes relative to the handle assembly.

This invention provides a method for eliminating the surface stress of a silicon wafer comprising forming one or more anti-stress groove(s) on the surface of the silicon wafer. These anti-stress grooves can reduce or eliminate the surface stress of silicon wafer effectively to avoid the formation of slip lines and dislocation arrangements, which may induce the p-n junction to conduct or the leakage current to increase. The process is highly efficient and low in cost. It is simple to manage and d...

A tomographic system includes a reporting device colocated and juxtaposed an object so that both are ground through grinding to various sectioning depths as the reporting device is ground down exposing a reporting marker along a length of the reporting device for indicating the depth of sectioning for accurate precise depth of grinding well suited for precise sectioned tomographic imaging.

A pad for CMP operations includes a guide plate having a plurality of holes therein and being affixed to a compressible under-layer; and a plurality of pressure-sensing and process monitoring polishing elements each affixed to the compressible under-layer and passing through a corresponding hole in the guide plate so as to be maintained in a substantially vertical orientation with respect to the compressible under-layer but being translatable in a vertical direction with respect to the guide pla...