Method of simultaneously polishing a plurality of objects of a similar type, in particular silicon wafers, on a polishing installation

The invention pertains to a method in which a plurality of objects of a similar type are simultaneously polished on a polishing installation provided with two polishing plates that are actively operated in parallel. The invention also pertains to a corresponding polishing installation. It is already known that a very wide range of types of objects are mechanically polished to obtain a high-quality, planar surface. Suitable polishing installations (CMP, chemical mechanical polishing installations) are commercially available for these applications. These installations are in use, for example, in various sectors of the semiconductor fabrication industry. The method allows simultaneous polishing of a plurality of objects of a similar type, preferably silicon wafers. The polishing process is interrupted briefly at least once. During the polishing pause, the carriers on which the objects to be polished have been mounted are rotated onward sequentially and then the polishing operation is continued. The objects are mounted on one or more carriers which are at a free position during the polishing operation. This has the advantage that the polishing operation does not have to be additionally interrupted for the purpose of loading and unloading the carrier. This saves valuable machine time, so that the throughput is increased. At the same time, the fact that each wafer is processed at a plurality of polishing plates stabilizes the result of polishing, since the individual abrasion properties of the individual polishing plates are averaged out.