Sumco Corporation

Sumitomo Metal Industries, Inc.

Tomohiro Hashii

Katsuhiko Murayama

Sakae Koyata

Kazushige Takaishi

Takeo Katoh

Yuichi Kakizono

Toshiyuki Tanaka

Yasuyuki Hashimoto

Yoshiaki Kurosawa

Daisuke Hashimoto

Yasunori Yamada

Sumihisa Masuda

Satoshi Matagawa

Kazunori Onizaki

Tooru Watanabe

Tsukasa Yoshihara

Kawahito Shinichi

Yasunori Yoshioka

It would be helpful to provide a wafer separation apparatus and method, and a method for manufacturing a silicon wafer in which poor wafer separation can be easily prevented. A wafer separation apparatusincludes an injection portconfigured to inject a fluid, a rolling element, and a holderconfigured to movably hold the rolling elementin a rollable and integral manner, to be reciprocatable and biased to one side in a reciprocating direction, and to be integrally connected to the injection port

Wafer separation apparatus and method, and method for manufacturing silicon wafer

Provided is a method of lapping a semiconductor wafer, which can suppress the formation of a ring-shaped pattern in a nanotopography map. The method of lapping a semiconductor wafer includes: a stopping step of stopping lapping of a semiconductor wafer; a reversing step of reversing surfaces of the semiconductor wafer facing a upper plate and a lower plate after the stopping step; and a resuming step of resuming lapping of the semiconductor wafer after the reversing step while maintaining the reversal of the surfaces facing the plates.

Method of lapping semiconductor wafer and semiconductor wafer

In a wafer processing method by which, by using, as a reference surface, a flat surface obtained by applying a curable material to the whole of one surface of a wafer obtained by slicing a semiconductor single-crystal ingot by using a wire saw apparatus, surface grinding is performed on the other surface of the wafer and surface grinding is performed on the one surface of the wafer by using the other surface of the wafer subjected to surface grinding as a reference surface, both surfaces of the wafer are planarized at the same time immediately after the wafer is obtained by slicing.

Method for processing semiconductor wafer

Disclosure relates to a fixed abrasive-grain processing device and a method of fixed abrasive-grain processing used for producing a semiconductor wafer, and a method for producing a semiconductor wafer which make the surface of the semiconductor wafer possible to have preferable flatness and which can prevent the number of steps and the installation area of facilities from increasing. The producing of semiconductor wafers uses a fixed abrasive-grain processing device including a lower fixed abrasive-grain layer that is adjacent to the top surface of the lower surface-plate and that grinds the top surfaces of the plurality of semiconductor wafers; an upper fixed abrasive-grain layer that is adjacent to the bottom surface of the upper surface-plate and that grinds the bottom surfaces of the plurality of semiconductor wafers; a carrier plate that is horizontally interposed between the lower surface-plate and the upper surface-plate and that includes a plurality of holes each accommodating one of the plurality of semiconductor wafers; and a carrier rotating device that circularly moves the carrier plate, wherein the lower fixed abrasive-grain layer and the upper fixed abrasive-grain layer include fixed abrasive grain having a diameter of 4 &#x3bc;m or less and being dispersed and fixed in elastic members.

Fixed abrasive-grain processing device, method of fixed abrasive-grain processing, and method for producing semiconductor wafer

A surface of a semiconductor wafer is subjected to high flattening processing. A resin application and grinding step is repeatedly carried out, the step including determining as a reference surface a flat surface obtained by applying a curable material to one entire surface of a wafer sliced out from a semiconductor single crystal ingot with the use of a wire saw apparatus and performing surface grinding with respect to the other surface of the wafer, and determining as a reference surface the other surface of the wafer subjected to the surface grinding and performing the surface grinding with respect to the one surface of the wafer.

Machining process for semiconductor wafer

The present invention provides a polishing solution distribution apparatus capable of reducing distribution deviation of polishing solution even when leveling for installation is insufficient or inclination of an installation location varies and a polishing apparatus having the same. The polishing solution distribution apparatus includes a cone-shaped branch body in which a solution pan to store supplied polishing solution is formed and in which plural flow passages radially connected to a side face of the solution pan respectively and having a delivery port to supply polishing solution to a position lower than the connected position are formed, a support portion to support the branch body, and a universal joint mechanism to support the branch body via the support portion at a position being higher than the gravity center of the branch body.

Polishing solution distribution apparatus and polishing apparatus having the same

A method for manufacturing an epitaxial wafer that can reduce occurrence of a surface defect or a slip formed on an epitaxial layer is provided. The manufacturing method is characterized by comprising: a smoothing step of controlling application of an etchant to a wafer surface in accordance with a surface shape of a silicon wafer to smooth the wafer surface; and an epitaxial layer forming step of forming an epitaxial layer formed of a silicon single crystal on the surface of the wafer based on epitaxial growth.

Method for manufacturing epitaxial wafer

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for etching a single wafer, which effectively realizes a high flatness of wafer and an increase in productivity thereof. In a method for etching a single wafer, a single thin disk-like wafer sliced from a silicon single crystal ingot is spun, and a front surface of the wafer is etched with an etching solution supplied thereto. In the method, a plurality of supply nozzles are disposed above and opposite to the front surface of the wafer at different portions in the radial direction of the wafer, respectively; and then one or more conditions selected from the group consisting of temperatures, kinds, and supply flow rates of etching solutions from the plurality of supply nozzles are changed.

Method for etching single wafer

A method of grinding semiconductor wafers including simultaneously grinding both surfaces of multiple semiconductor wafers by rotating the wafers between a pair of upper and lower rotating surface plates in a state where the wafers are held on a carrier so that centers of the wafers are positioned on a circumference of a single circle, wherein a ratio of an area of a circle passing through the centers of the wafers to an area of one of the wafers is greater than or equal to 1.33 but less than 2.0; surfaces of the fixed abrasive grains comprised in the surface plates are comprised of pellets disposed in a grid-like fashion, with the pellets provided in a center portion and pellets provided in a peripheral portion being larger in size than the pellets provided in an intermediate portion.

Method of grinding semiconductor wafers, grinding surface plate, and grinding device

An apparatus for etching a wafer by a single-wafer process comprises a fluid supplying device which feeds an etching fluid on a wafer, and a wafer-chuck for horizontally holding the wafer. The wafer-chuck is equipped with a gas injection device for injecting a gas to the wafer, a first fluid-aspirating device, and a second fluid-aspirating device. The etching fluid supplied on the wafer is spread by a rotation of the wafer. The etching fluid is scattered by a centrifugal force, or flows down over an edge portion of the wafer and is blown-off by the gas injected from the gas injection unit, and is aspirated by the first fluid-aspirating device or the second fluid-aspirating device.

Apparatus for etching wafer by single-wafer process and single wafer type method for etching wafer

Disclosed is a method for smoothing the surface of at least one side of a wafer which is obtained by slicing a semiconductor ingot. In this method, a fluid is applied according to projections of the wafer surface, thereby reducing the projections. Alternatively, a fluid is applied over the wafer surface, thereby smoothing the entire surface of the wafer while reducing the projections in the wafer surface.

Method for smoothing wafer surface and apparatus used therefor

An object of the present invention is to provide a single wafer etching apparatus realizing a high flatness of wafers and an increase in productivity thereof. In the single wafer etching apparatus, a single thin disk-like wafer sliced from a silicon single crystal ingot is mounted on a wafer chuck and spun thereon, and an overall front surface of the wafer is etched with an etching solution supplied thereto by centrifugal force generated by spinning the wafer. The singe wafer etching apparatus includes a plurality of supply nozzlescapable of discharging the etching solutionfrom discharge openingsonto the front surface of the wafer, nozzle-moving devices each capable of independently moving the plurality of supply nozzles, and an etching solution supplying devicefor supplying the etching solutionto each of the plurality of supply nozzles and discharging the etching solutionfrom each of the discharge openings to the front surface of the wafer

Single wafer etching method

This wafer polishing apparatus includes: a polishing plate having a polishing pad; a carrier plate which is placed facing the polishing pad and which slides and presses wafers against the polishing pad, while rotating in a state of holding the wafers; and an abrasive slurry supply device, wherein the abrasive slurry supply device is able to supply different abrasive slurries, each of the abrasive slurries contains abrasives of which the average grain size is different from those contained in the other abrasive slurries. This method for polishing wafers includes: while supplying an abrasive slurry to a surface of a polishing pad, sliding and pressing wafers against the polishing pad, wherein different abrasive slurries are supplied to the surface of the polishing pad, and each of the abrasive slurries contains abrasives of which the average grain size is different from those contained in the other abrasive slurries.

Wafer polishing apparatus and method for polishing wafers

A process for producing a silicon wafer comprising a single-wafer etching step of performing an etching by supplying an etching solution through a supplying-nozzle to a surface of a single and a thin-discal wafer obtained by slicing a silicon single crystal ingot and rotating the wafer to spread the etching solution over all the surface of the wafer; and a grinding step of grinding the surface of the wafer, in this order, wherein the etching solution used in the single-wafer etching step is an aqueous acid solution which contains hydrogen fluoride, nitric acid, and phosphoric acid in an amount such that the content of which by weight % at a mixing rate of fluoric acid:nitric acid:phosphoric acid is 0.5 to 40%:5 to 50%:5 to 70%, respectively.

Process for producing silicon wafer

This silicon wafer production process comprises in the order indicated a planarization step, in which the front surface and the rear surface of a wafer are ground or lapped, a single-wafer acid etching step, in which an acid etching liquid is supplied to the surface of the wafer while spinning and the entire wafer surface is etched to control the surface roughness Ra to 0.20 &#x3bc;m or less, and a double-sided simultaneous polishing step, in which the front surface and the rear surface of the acid etched wafer are polished simultaneously. The process may comprise a single-sided polishing step, in which the top and bottom of the acid etched wafer are polished in turn, instead of the double-sided simultaneously polishing step.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Tomohiro Hashii