To provide a flattening cievice which is capable of accurately and reproducibly detecting the polishing volume of a polished layer on a substrate, without interrupting a polishing operation, accurately determining an end point of polishing, and flattening the substrate.
A support (wafer holder) 14, which holds a substrate (semiconductor wafer) 1 as a work to polish, includes a rubber pod 16 which presses the surface of the wafer 1 against a polishing body 17 coming into contact with the rear of the wafer 1, and temperature detecting devices 20, which detect temperatures are provided inside or on the surface of the rubber pod 16 at a prescribed interval so as to be on the same plane. Temperatures or a temperature distribution throughout the surface of the wafer 1 is obtained, based on signals emitted from the detecting devices 20 which detect temperatures in real time, and temperatures or a temperature distribution is calculated in term of a polishing volume.
MATSUSHIMA MASARU
KAWAMURA YOSHIO
KATAGIRI SOUICHI
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