US Patent 11027395 Polishing apparatus, polishing method, and machine learning apparatus

A polishing unit 3A includes a state acquisition section 846 and a learning section. The state acquisition section can acquire a state variable including at least one of data on a state of a top ring making up the polishing unit and data on a state of a semiconductor wafer. The learning section has learned a relationship between the state variable and a change in film thickness of the semiconductor wafer using a neural network, the learning section being capable of receiving the state variable from the state acquisition section to predict the change and/or receiving the state variable from the state acquisition section to determine that the change is abnormal.