The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 28, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 05, 1997
H Alexander Anderson, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Linh X Can, San Jose, CA (US);
Tsungnan Cheng, Saratoga, CA (US);
Garry K Kwong, San Jose, CA (US);
Albert Hu, San Jose, CA (US);
David Chen, San Jose, CA (US);
Shu-Wong S Lee, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Aplex, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A wafer polishing apparatus includes a module frame; a continuous belt rotatable with respect to the frame, the belt having at least one vertically-oriented belt transverse portion including a polishing pad assembly; and at least one pivotable wafer-holding head drive within the frame and having a distal end portion movable to a vertical first position parallel and juxtaposed to the belt transverse portion. The head drive includes a wafer carrier for holding a wafer on the distal end portion of the head drive, while a drive moves the distal end portion and a held wafer into a vertical polishing position abutting the belt transverse portion and pressure is applied to the held-wafer against the polishing pad assembly while the wafer-holding distal end portion is rotated and swept side-by-side. After polishing the drive is reversed and the head drive is pivoted away from the belt transverse portion to a horizontal or other orientation and the then polished wafer removed. Multiple modules may be placed end-to-end or side-by-side with a robot pathway therebetween to load unpolished wafers and to unload polished wafers to a buffing station, to a cassette or other processing station.