The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 25, 1997
Filed:
May. 23, 1995
Richard O Gale, Richardson, TX (US);
Michael A Mignardi, Dallas, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A processing fixture and method of fabricating micromechanical devices, such as digital micromirror devices, that allows fragile structures on wafer 22 to be protected from debris during the saw operation and subsequent cleaning operations. The wafer 22 is attached to a vacuum fixture 26 after partially sawing the wafer 22 to create saw kerfs. The backside of the wafer 22 is then ground down to the saw kerfs 24 to separate the devices 32. Each device 32 is held on the fixture by a vacuum in the headspace above the device 32. In an alternate embodiment the devices are separated by sawing completely through the wafer while in the fixture.