A professional who tends abrading machines that polish or lap surface of semiconductor wafers. Responsibilities include:

• Reads work order to determine specifications.
• Loads wafers or carriers containing wafers onto polishing or lapping machine.
• Adjusts machine controls or loads programmed control media in machine to regulate pressure, time, and slurry flow.
• Starts lapping machine that removes saw marks and reduces wafer thickness or starts polishing machine that polishes wafers.
• Observes machine operation and listens to sounds of belts, cams, and abrading wheel to detect machine malfunctions.
• Adjusts mechanisms or requests repairs as necessary.
• Stops machine at prescribed time, removes wafers from machine, and rinses wafers with water to cool wafers and remove slurry.
• Examines wafers for defects, and measures wafer thickness, using thickness gauge.
• May clean wafers, using chemical solutions, water, or gases, to remove contaminants from wafer surface.
• May mount wafers onto carriers.
• May mix slurry.
• May tend machine that rounds wafer edges and be designated edge-round tender.
• May be designated according to machine tended as lapping machine tender.