Disco Corporation

Noboru Takeda

Hiroshi Morikazu

Takumi Shotokuji

Yukio Morishige

Hirokazu Matsumoto

Toshiyuki Yoshikawa

Satoshi Genda

Hiroshi Nomura

Kazuya Hirata

Naotoshi Kirihara

Tasuku Koyanagi

Nobuyasu Kitahara

Hironari Ohkubo

Naoki Ohmiya

Ken Togashi

Xiaoming Qiu

Fumiteru Tashino

Koichi Takeyama

Fumiya Kawano

Taizo Kanezaki

Yukihiro Kiribayashi

A wafer forming method includes a peeling layer forming step of applying, to a SiC ingot, a laser beam of such a wavelength as to be transmitted through the SiC ingot, with a focal point of the laser beam positioned at a depth corresponding to a thickness of a wafer to be formed from a first surface of the SiC ingot, to form a peeling layer including a modified section and cracks; and a wafer forming step of immersing the SiC ingot in a liquid and applying an ultrasonic wave to the SiC ingot through the liquid, to thereby peel a part of the SiC ingot with the peeling layer as an interface and form the wafer. In the wafer forming step, the ultrasonic wave is applied to the SiC ingot while a sweep treatment of regularly varying the oscillation frequency of an ultrasonic vibrator is performed.

Wafer forming method

A manufacturing method of a plate-shaped object includes a shield tunnel forming step of forming plural shield tunnels in a plate-shaped workpiece formed of a hard material and an etching step of etching the shield tunnels by an etchant. The plate-shaped object is capable of being bent by an external force. In the shield tunnel forming step, plural shield tunnels are formed in a first shield tunnel region having a first length along a line-shaped first processing-planned region set on one surface of the workpiece, and plural shield tunnels are formed in a second shield tunnel region having a second length along a line-shaped second processing-planned region that is different from a region on an extension line of the first processing-planned region and is adjacent to the first processing-planned region on the one surface.

Manufacturing method of plate-shaped object

A laser beam irradiation unit of a laser processing apparatus includes: a laser oscillator in which a repetition frequency is set so as to oscillate a pulsed laser having a pulse width shorter than a time of electronic excitation caused by irradiating the workpiece with a laser beam and oscillate at least two pulsed lasers within the electronic excitation time; a condenser that irradiates the workpiece held on the chuck table with the pulsed laser beams oscillated by the laser oscillator; and a thinning-out unit that is disposed between the laser oscillator and the condenser and guides the pulsed laser beams necessary for processing to the condenser by thinning out and discarding pulsed laser beams in a predetermined cycle.

Laser processing apparatus

A wafer processing method of dividing a wafer into a plurality of chips along a plurality of division lines includes: a shield tunnel forming step of causing a focusing point of a pulsed laser beam of a wavelength having a transmitting property with respect to the wafer to be positioned inside the wafer and applying the pulsed laser beam, and then forming a plurality of shield tunnels each including a fine hole and an amorphous region shielding the fine hole along the division lines; and a wafer dividing step of applying an external force to the wafer and then dividing the wafer in which the shield tunnels are formed along the division lines, in which the pulsed laser beam is split to have two or more of the focusing points which are along a direction parallel to the division lines.

Wafer processing method

A crystal orientation detecting apparatus for detecting a crystal orientation of a nonlinear optical crystal substrate includes a laser beam applying unit applying a linearly polarized laser beam to a surface of the nonlinear optical crystal substrate, a harmonic detecting unit detecting a harmonic produced from the nonlinear optical crystal substrate due to a nonlinear optical effect, a recording unit recording the relationship between the angular displacement through which the plane of polarization of the laser beam and the nonlinear optical crystal substrate are rotated relatively to each other, and the intensity of the harmonic, and a crystal orientation detecting unit detecting the crystal orientation of the nonlinear optical crystal substrate based on the recorded relationship.

Crystal orientation detecting apparatus and crystal orientation detecting method

Disclosed herein is a laser processing method including a first application step of applying a first laser beam having a pulse width shorter than time of electron excitation generated by application of a laser beam to a workpiece, and a second application step of applying a second laser beam within the electron excitation time.

Laser processing method and laser processing apparatus

Disclosed herein is an inspecting apparatus including an illuminating unit adapted to be positioned in the periphery of a transparent member for illuminating the transparent member from the outside of the circumference thereof, an imaging unit adapted to be opposed to the transparent member for imaging the transparent member illuminated by the illuminating unit, and a displaying monitor for displaying an image obtained by the imaging unit.

Inspecting apparatus and laser processing apparatus

A processing method for a wafer including a crack detection step for irradiating illumination of a wavelength transparent to wafer, picking up an image of the wafer, and detecting whether a crack is generated within the wafer, a crack direction verification step for verifying, when a crack is detected, to which one of the first and second directions a direction in which the crack extends is nearer, a first cutting step for positioning the cutting blade to a scheduled division line of a direction decided to be a direction farther from the direction in which the crack extends from between the first and second directions and cutting the scheduled division line, and next a second cutting step for positioning the cutting blade to a scheduled division line of a direction decided to be nearer to the direction in which the crack extends and cutting the scheduled division line.

Processing method for wafer

A single-crystal substrate having a film deposited on a surface thereof is processed to divide the single-crystal substrate along a plurality of preset division lines, including a shield tunnel forming step of applying a pulsed laser beam having such a wavelength that permeates through the single-crystal substrate to the single-crystal substrate from a reverse side thereof along the division lines to form shield tunnels, each including a fine hole and an amorphous region shielding the fine hole, in the single-crystal substrate along the division lines, a film removing step of removing the film deposited on the single-crystal substrate along the division lines, and a dividing step of exerting an external force on the single-crystal substrate to which the shield tunnel forming step and the film removing step are performed to divide the single-crystal substrate along the division lines along which the shield tunnels have been formed.

Method of processing single-crystal substrate

A method for detecting an internal crack in a wafer includes a first image recording step of applying near infrared light having a transmission wavelength to a reference wafer having the same configuration as a target wafer to be subjected to the detection of the internal crack, thereby obtaining a first image of the reference wafer having no internal crack and then recording the first image, a processing step of processing the target wafer, a second image recording step of applying the near infrared light to the target wafer, thereby obtaining a second image of the processed target wafer and then recording the second image, and an internal crack detecting step of removing the same image information between the first image and the second image from the second image to obtain a residual image, thereby detecting the residual image as the internal crack in the target wafer.

Internal crack detecting method and internal crack detecting apparatus

Disclosed herein is a processing method of a single-crystal substrate having a film formed on a front side or a back side thereof to divide the single-crystal substrate along a plurality of preset division lines. The method includes a film removing step of removing the film along the division lines, a shield tunnel forming step of applying a pulsed laser beam having a wavelength which permeates through the single-crystal substrate along the division lines to form shield tunnels, each including a fine hole and an amorphous region shielding the fine hole, in the single-crystal substrate along the division lines, and dividing step of exerting an external force on the single-crystal substrate to which the shield tunnel forming step is performed to divide the single-crystal substrate along the division lines.

Processing method of single-crystal substrate

A focusing unit of a laser processing apparatus includes: a focusing lens that focuses a laser beam oscillated from a laser beam oscillating unit; and a spherical aberration extending lens that extends the spherical aberration of the focusing lens. A pulsed laser beam is applied from the focusing unit to a workpiece held on a chuck table, to form shield tunnels each composed of a fine hole and an amorphous region shielding the fine hole, the shield tunnels extending from an upper surface toward a lower surface of the workpiece.

There is provided a wafer processing method for dividing a wafer having a plurality of devices formed in regions partitioned by a plurality of crossing division lines on a front surface of a substrate having a birefringent crystal structure, into individual device chips. The wafer processing method includes a detection step of detecting the division line formed on the front surface of the wafer by an imaging unit from the back side of the wafer. In the detection step, a polarizer disposed on an optical axis connecting an imaging element and an image forming lens provided in the imaging unit intercepts extraordinary light appearing due to birefringence in the substrate and guides ordinary light to the imaging element.

Disclosed herein is a wafer processing method including a cover plate providing step of providing a cover plate on the front side of a wafer to thereby form a composite wafer, a welding step of applying a laser beam along each division line formed on the front side of the wafer in the condition where the focal point of the laser beam is set at the interface between the wafer and the cover plate on opposite sides of the lateral center of each division line, thereby forming two parallel welded lines for joining the wafer and the cover plate along each division line, and a dividing step of forming a cut line between the two parallel welded lines formed along each division line, thereby cutting the composite wafer along each division line to obtain individual device chips each covered with the cover plate.

A lift-off method for transferring an optical device layer in an optical device wafer to a transfer substrate, the optical device layer being formed on the front side of an epitaxy substrate through a buffer layer. A transfer substrate is bonded through a bonding layer to the front side of the optical device layer of the optical device wafer, thereby forming a composite substrate. A pulsed laser beam having a wavelength transmissive to the epitaxy substrate and absorptive to the buffer layer is applied from the back side of the epitaxy substrate to the buffer layer, thereby breaking the buffer layer, and the epitaxy substrate is peeled from the optical device layer, thereby transferring the optical device layer to the transfer substrate. Ultrasonic vibration is applied to the composite substrate in transferring the optical device layer.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Noboru Takeda