SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER POLISHING APPARATUS, METHOD AND PROGRAM FOR ESTIMATING POLISHING RATE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for estimating a polishing rate of a semiconductor wafer polishing apparatus capable of accurately the estimating the polishing rate irrespective of circuit patterns on semiconductor wafer. SOLUTION: A polishing rate can be estimated on the basis of a statistics model including a plurality of physical amounts indicating characteristics of a polishing mechanism for polishing the semiconductor wafer as elements of an expression. In this case, an approximate expression for obtaining a compensating value corresponding to pattern data of a circuit pattern on the semiconductor wafer is determined for each of the plurality of physical amounts. Next, the statistics model is compensated with the compensating value obtained by the approximate expression. Thereafter, the polishing rate is estimated using the compensated statistics model. COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT