Disco Corporation

Akiko Kigawa

Shinichi Fujisawa

Karl Heinz Priewasser

Nobuyuki Fukushi

Masayuki Matsubara

When processing of all the wafers accommodated in a first cassette mounted on a first cassette stage is ended, the last wafer is conveyed out from a holding surface of a chuck table, and the holding surface becomes vacant, the wafer accommodated in a second cassette mounted on a second cassette stage is immediately conveyed onto the holding surface, by control by a conveyance control section. When the wafer to be held by the holding surface is changed from the wafer conveyed out from the first cassette to the wafer conveyed out from the second cassette, processing conditions are changed over to the processing conditions corresponding to the second cassette stage, by changeover control by a changeover section.

Processing apparatus configured for processing wafers continuously under different processing conditions

A method of expanding a sheet includes the steps of gripping the sheet with a first gripping unit and a second griping unit and gripping the sheet with a third gripping unit and a fourth gripping unit, and expanding the sheet by moving the first gripping unit and the second griping unit away from each other in first directions relatively and moving the third gripping unit and the fourth gripping unit away from each other in second directions relatively. In the step of expanding the sheet, the states of the sheet that is under tension are detected, and movement of the first gripping unit, the second griping unit, the third gripping unit, and the fourth gripping unit is controlled based on the detected states of the sheet.

Expanding method

In a processing method, a surface protective tape peeling step of peeling a surface protective tape off the top surface of a wafer is performed in a state in which an expanding sheet is expanded while a preliminary expanding step of expanding the expanding sheet is performed after an affixing step is performed. Therefore, the surface protective tape can be peeled off the top surface of the wafer while a tension is applied to the expanding sheet. It is thereby possible to prevent chips from coming into contact with each other and being damaged. When an expanding step is thereafter performed, the expanding sheet is expanded by an amount of expansion which amount is a value larger than an amount of expansion of the expanding sheet in the preliminary expanding step. Thus, sufficient intervals can be formed between the chips, and the chips can be transported smoothly.

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Tokyo, Japan

Akiko Kigawa