POLISHING METHOD AND POLISHING APPARATUS FOR SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To uniformly polish the front of a semiconductor wafer by varying the pressure in a pressurizing surface according to a warp of a semiconductor wafer so that the semiconductor wafer and a polishing pad are brought into uniform contact with each other to be polished. SOLUTION: A pressurizing means and a control means for controlling the means are provided in the interior of a holder 3 for holding a semiconductor wafer, whereby the pressure (p) applied to the base part 3a of the holder 3 is varied according to a warp of the semiconductor wafer 2 and the semiconductor wafer 2 and the polishing pad 1 are brought into uniform contact with each other to be polished. That is, the pressure (p) is controlled by a pressure control means so that the central part of the semiconductor wafer 2 which is recessed with respect to the polishing pad 1 is pressurized with higher pressure as compared with the peripheral part, and the peripheral part of the semiconductor wafer 2 which is projected with respect to the polishing pad 1 is pressurized with lower pressure as compared with the central part. Thus, the whole surface of the semiconductor wafer 2 comes into contact with the polishing pad 1 so that polishing with good accuracy can be realized.