Dicing apparatus

Abstract

A dicing apparatus for cutting a semiconductor wafer into a plurality of a microelectronic circuit dice each having bonding pads which are located adjacent a cutting path on the wafer. The apparatus comprises a diamond dicing blade which is held between a pair of flanges, fitted to a spindle rotating at very high speed, the blade cutting the wafer along the cutting path in an up-cut and down-cut mode. Cooling wafer is applied from both sides of the rotating flanges and dicing blade, from a coolant nozzle and flows against a cutting interface. Each flange has an outer side surface such that, as the flange rotates, the major quantity of the cooling water flows along the outer side surface and violently flows onto a surface of the wafer which is beyond the edge of the bonding pad, to avoid the cutting debris from being driven into the bonding pad, when the dicing blade works in the down-cut mode. Each coolant nozzle is in the form of a slit along a coolant pipe which is located in parallel with and close to the surface of the wafer. The slit has a guard or a guide so that the cooling water spurts from the nozzle and flows toward the cutting interface at an angle to the surface of the wafer for cooling the cutting interface and effectively cooperating with the rotating flanges and dicing blade.