Disco Corporation

Disco Corportion

Kentaro Odanaka

Hironari Ohkubo

Tomoaki Endo

Senichi Ryo

Wakana Onoe

Heidi Lan

Masatoshi Wakahara

Hiroshi Morikazu

Yusaku Ito

Naotoshi Kirihara

Yukinobu Ohura

Shuichiro Tsukiji

Yukiyasu Masuda

Kenya Kai

Joel Koerwer

Kouichi Nehashi

Meiyu Piao

Taku Iwamoto

Yohei Kaneko

Wataru Odagiri

Karl Heinz Priewasser

Yuki Ogawa

Yuta Yoshida

Keiichi Kajiyama

Ryugo Oba

Tomotaka Tabuchi

Satoshi Kumazawa

Yuri Ban

Junichi Kuki

Yu Kudo

Takashi Sampei

Zentaro Kawasaki

Meiya Piao

Ayana Nakanishi

A method of processing a wafer includes removing a functional layer on projected dicing lines, thereby exposing a substrate, and cutting the wafer along the projected dicing lines where the substrate is exposed, thereby fabricating individual device chips. A laser applying apparatus includes a beam branching unit for branching a laser beam spot into at least two slender spots spaced from each other in a processing direction along the projected dicing lines, and orienting longer sides of the slender spots transversely across the projected dicing lines and shorter sides of the slender spots in the processing direction. A wafer region processed by the laser beams is expanded by moving the at least two slender spots from the beam branching unit in such a manner as to make the longer sides of the slender spots shifted in opposite directions transversely across the projected dicing lines.

Method of processing wafer and laser applying apparatus

A laser oscillation mechanism of a laser beam irradiation unit has a first mode to break growing debris, a second mode to suppress generation of molten debris, and a third mode to break the growing debris and suppress generation of the molten debris. The laser oscillation mechanism includes a selecting part that selects any of the first mode, the second mode, and the third mode. The laser oscillation mechanism sets a repetition frequency with a first group being one unit in the first mode, and sets a repetition frequency with a second group being one unit in the second mode, and sets a repetition frequency with a third group being one unit in the third mode.

Laser processing apparatus

A laser processing apparatus includes a laser oscillating mechanism for emitting pulsed laser beams. The laser oscillating mechanism includes a group setting section for establishing the number of pulsed laser beams to be applied to a workpiece until a time after which melted debris produced by the pulsed laser beams applied to the workpiece is solidified, and assigns the pulsed laser beams to a group, under conditions that, within a period of time which is shorter than a period of time in which the melted debris is produced, and within a period of time after which a plasma generated by the pulsed laser beam becomes extinct, a next pulsed laser beam is applied to the workpiece to sustain the plasma uninterruptedly to break growing debris, and a time interval setting section for establishing a time interval between the group and another group adjacent thereto.

Laser processing apparatus and laser processing method

A laser processing apparatus includes a laser beam applying mechanism for applying a laser beam to a workpiece held by a holding mechanism while keeping a converged spot of the laser beam in the workpiece, and a temperature detector for detecting a temperature of the holding mechanism or a temperature of an actuator of a moving mechanism that moves the holding mechanism in a processing feed direction. The laser beam applying mechanism has a converged spot position adjusting unit. The controller, depending on a temperature change detected by the temperature detector, controls the converged spot position adjusting unit to establish a position of the converged spot of the laser beam in a thicknesswise direction of the workpiece.

Laser processing apparatus and method of correcting converged spot position

A wafer processing apparatus including a supporting unit having a frame fixing section fixing the frame, and a wafer table having a front side and a rear side, the front side including a supporting face supporting the wafer and a transparent plate, a liquid layer forming unit including a nozzle section and forming a layer of a liquid on the supporting face of the wafer table, an imaging unit including an imaging camera positioned adjacent to the rear side of the wafer table and opposite to the supporting face on the front side of the wafer table and an air blowing nozzle blowing air to a region between the wafer table and the adhesive sheet.

Wafer processing method and wafer processing apparatus

A workpiece processing method for processing a workpiece using a processing apparatus including a chuck table, a processing unit, a moving mechanism for moving the chuck table and the processing unit relative to each other, and an imaging unit for imaging the workpiece, where the chuck table includes a holding member formed by a transparent body and a supporting member supporting a part of the holding member and connected to an angle control mechanism. The method includes a tape affixing step, a holding step of holding the workpiece by the chuck table via the tape, and an identifying step of imaging the top surface side of the workpiece through the transparent holding member by the imaging unit positioned in a region that is on a lower side of the holding member and is not superimposed on the supporting member, and identifying a region to be processed in the workpiece.

Processing apparatus and workpiece processing method

A wafer processing method includes a liquid layer forming step of forming a layer of a liquid on a supporting face of a wafer table included in a supporting unit, a fixing step of placing a side of an adhesive sheet of the wafer on the wafer table on which the layer of the liquid has been formed, and fixing the wafer to the wafer table through the adhesive sheet, a detecting step of imaging the wafer with an imaging unit which is positioned opposite to the supporting face of the wafer table to thereby detect the division lines formed on the front side of the wafer, and a processing step of processing a portion on a back side of the wafer corresponding to each of the division lines.

A processing apparatus includes a chuck table configured to hold a workpiece by a holding surface, a processing unit configured to process the workpiece held by the chuck table, a moving mechanism configured to move the chuck table and the processing unit relative to each other along a direction parallel with the holding surface of the chuck table, an angle control mechanism disposed on the moving mechanism and on a lower side of the chuck table, the angle control mechanism controlling an angle of the chuck table, and an imaging unit configured to image the workpiece held by the chuck table, the chuck table including a holding member formed by a transparent body and holding the workpiece and a supporting member supporting a part of the holding member and connected to the angle control mechanism.

A wafer processing method includes the following steps: forming, on a back side of a wafer including a device layer, a mask to be used in forming grooves in a substrate along streets from the back side of the wafer; applying plasma etching from the back side of the wafer through the mask to form the grooves in the substrate along the streets and to define chip regions surrounded by the grooves; immersing the wafer in water, to which ultrasonic vibrations are being applied, after the etching step, whereby the device layer is cracked or ruptured along outer peripheral edges of the chip regions; and bonding a tape to a front side of the wafer before performance of the water immersion step.

Wafer processing method

A wafer processing method for processing a wafer having a substrate and a device layer formed on a front side of the substrate includes forming a mask on a back side of the wafer, so as to form an etched groove along each street through a thickness of the substrate from the back side of the wafer, performing plasma etching from the back side of the wafer through the mask to the substrate after forming the mask, thereby forming the etched groove in the substrate along each street so that the etched groove has a depth equal to the thickness of the substrate, and applying a laser beam to the device layer along each street from the front side of the wafer before etching and mask forming, thereby forming a device layer dividing groove corresponding to the etched groove along each street.

A laser processing apparatus includes a branching unit configured to branch a laser beam to a first optical path and a second optical path, a condenser configured to condense the branched laser beams on a processing face of a workpiece, an output power measuring unit configured to measure the output power of the laser beam emitted from a laser beam generation unit and having passed through the condenser, and a blocking member positioning mechanism disposed between the condenser and the output power measuring unit and capable of positioning a blocking member between a first laser beam blocking position at which the blocking member blocks only the laser beam of the first optical path from between the branched laser beams and a retracted position at which the blocking member blocks none of the laser beams.

Laser processing apparatus and output power checking method

A laser processing apparatus includes: a chuck table that holds a packaged wafer by a holding surface; a laser processing unit that applies a laser beam to the packaged wafer to form a through-groove along each division line; an X-axis moving unit that moves the chuck table in an X-axis direction; and an examination unit. The chuck table includes: a holding member that forms the holding surface; and a light emitting body. The examination unit includes: a line sensor that extends in a Y-axis direction; and a control unit that determines the result of processing through reception by the line sensor of light from the light emitting body through the through-groove. The line sensor images the whole surface of the packaged wafer being held by the chuck table.

A wafer processing method includes the following steps: forming, on a back side of a wafer including a device layer, a mask to be used in forming grooves in a substrate along streets from the back side of the wafer; applying plasma etching from the back side of the wafer through the mask to form the grooves in the substrate along the streets; ejecting high-pressure fluid against the back side of the wafer with the wafer mounted at its front side on a mounting surface to press the wafer at regions surrounded by the etched grooves; and bonding a tape to the front side of the wafer before performance of at least the pressing step.

Disclosed herein is a laser processing apparatus including a controller. The controller includes a target pattern detecting section performing matching between patterns formed in each device imaged and a key pattern to thereby detect a target pattern included in each device, a spacing detecting section detecting the spacing in a Y direction between the target pattern and an ablation groove formed along each division line by ablation, and a map creating section creating a map showing the spacing in the Y direction between each target pattern and the ablation groove for the plural devices arranged along the ablation groove.

A method for dividing a wafer having a wiring layer including Cu on the front side, the front side of the wafer being partitioned by a plurality of crossing division lines to define a plurality of separate regions where a plurality of devices are formed. The method includes a laser processed groove forming step of applying a laser beam to the wiring layer along each division line to thereby remove the wiring layer along each division line and form a laser processed groove along each division line, a cutting step of using a cutting blade having a thickness smaller than the width of each laser processed groove to fully cut the wafer along each laser processed groove after performing the laser processed groove forming step, and a dry etching step of dry-etching at least each laser processed groove after performing the laser processed groove forming step.

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Tokyo, Japan

Kentaro Odanaka