A positioning stage that can prevent an excessive force from being imparted to a positioned wafer, a bump forming apparatus equipped with such a positioning stage, and a bump forming method performed using such a positioning stage are provided. A biasing member 26 that biases a wafer 2 towards a positioning member 28 has a contact surface 26s that substantially faces a wafer-holding surface 24a at an angle. The contact surface 26s is in contact with an outer periphery area of the wafer 2 so as to bias the wafer 2 slantwise towards the wafer-holding surface 24a. With a resiliently deformable member 27, the positioning member 28 is brought into contact with the wafer 2 and is held at a positioning position. When a bias force exceeding a predetermined magnitude is imparted to the positioning member 28, the resiliently deformable member 27 becomes resiliently deformed so as to allow the positioning member 28 to recede from the positioning position.
