Patent attributes
The present invention provides a wafer polishing method and a polishing apparatus which are capable of preventing peripheral sags of a wafer due to polishing and then manufacturing the wafer, especially an SOI wafer at a high flatness level. There is provided a wafer polishing method using a polishing apparatus which comprises a rotatable table having a polishing cloth adhered thereon and a polishing head equipped with a wafer holding plate opposing to the table and in which the back surface of the wafer is held by a holding surface of the wafer holding plate and the front surface of the wafer is pressed to and polished by the polishing pad, comprising a polishing step of polishing the front surface of the wafer to a predetermined total polishing stock removal without changing the polishing apparatus, wherein the polishing step is divided into plural sub-steps and a holding position of the wafer in a subsequent sub-step is different from a holding position of the wafer in a previous sub-step.
