JPS60214911A - Dicing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a dicing apparatus equipped with an automatic handling mechanism, and particularly to a dicing apparatus for semiconductor wafers.

For example, the basic configuration of a dicing apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 51-28754.

Blank space below [Prior Art] In the manufacture of semiconductor elements such as transistors and semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs), the process begins with preparing ingot-shaped single crystal semiconductor materials and cutting these semiconductor ingots into a number of semiconductor wafers. . The cutting operation of the semiconductor ingot is generally known as slicing, and the semiconductor ingot is cut using a diamond cutter or the like.

The semiconductor wafer thus obtained is then sent to various steps such as oxidation, diffusion, and vapor deposition, and a large number of semiconductor element regions are formed within the semiconductor wafer.

[In order to separate the large number of semiconductor elements formed within the semiconductor wafer, the semiconductor wafer is then subjected to a dicing operation, and a large number of grooves are formed in the vertical and horizontal directions on the surface I/C surrounding each element. built. Next, the wafer is subjected to a breaking operation, which breaks the wafer along the dicing grooves 9 to separate the wafer into a number of semiconductor pellets (dice or chips). These pellets are then subjected to a sorting operation to classify them according to their characteristics, after which each pellet is brazed onto a lead frame or stem support, followed by wire bonding and encapsulation operations to form semiconductors. assembled as an element.

By the way, in the above-mentioned series of manufacturing processes, the dicing work is a work to separate a large number of semiconductor pellets from a single semiconductor unit in which a large number of semiconductor elements are formed, and therefore the work can be performed quickly and with L. It also needs to be done efficiently.

FIG. 1 shows a series of conventional dicing operations in order of process. First, like (A).

Prepare a case 2 containing a large number of wafers l to be diced, then pick up the wafers 1 one by one from the case 2 with tweezers 3 as shown in (B), place them on the dicing tape/I/4, and position them. After that, the original dicing operation is performed using the dicing blade 5 as shown in (C). Next, as shown in (D), the diced wafer 1 is transferred from the table 4 using tweezers 2.
It is stored in the case 2 again as shown in (E).

However, conventional dicing operations are inefficient because more time is spent on preparatory work related to the steps before and after the dicing operation than the time required for the actual dicing operation itself.

In other words, the handling of the sea urchins before and after the dicing process was all done manually, and because it took time to position (align) the wafers to be diced on a predetermined table, it was difficult to start the original dicing process. The numbers did not increase.

In addition, since handling such as setting and removing the wafer from the dicing table is done manually, the method and strength of the external force applied to the wafer from the wafer is unstable. Damage was inevitable.

According to the inventors' studies, if the loader and unloader are laid out on both sides of the blade, one loader section will move in the same direction as the blade.
It was found that water droplets and cutting chips were scattered on the loader section, contaminating wafers, jigs, etc.

The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and its gist is to provide a dicing device for cutting the surface of a semiconductor wafer or an integrated circuit wafer with a rotating blade, in which a loader for feeding the wafer is used. By arranging the unloader section and unloader section for sending out processed wafers on the same side with respect to the rotating blade, the dicing apparatus can hold wafers and jigs cleanly.

Margins below (*Example) The following describes an example of an automatic dicing device that the inventor developed for the first time [7].

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Figure 2 shows the dicing equipment (hereinafter referred to as the equipment) that includes a wafer loader section A, a wafer positioning section B, a wafer alignment section and a dicing section C, a wafer unlobe section E, a wafer unlobe section E, a wafer 1 chuck section F, etc. '1: Particularly heavy-walled is the square chuck part F, and the chuck mechanism is a so-called Bernoulli chuck that uses fluid (air #$) and the buoyant force when it is blown onto the object to be processed. Handling work when transferring the material between the parts is carried out using this chuck without directly touching the object with hands.

The detailed VC will be explained below for each component. FIG. 3 shows a wafer loader section, in which a cartridge 6 containing a certain number (for example, about 20 to 25) of wafers 1 to be diced is set at a predetermined position 7 of the apparatus. An air shade 8 is provided at this point fi7, and when the wafer 1 is placed (supplied) from the cartridge 6 onto the end of the air shade 8, the wafer l is immediately placed on the air shade 8 as indicated by an arrow. The air blow is transferred in the direction. The cartridge 6 is filled with wafers that are regularly arranged in a vertical row, for example, and the wafers at the bottom of the cartridges (the wafers placed on the air shade) receive light emitted from the light source 9. The output signal of the phototransistor 10 is transmitted to the motor 11, and the operation of the motor 11 is controlled according to this output signal.For example, when a wafer is B) If 54C is in the above passage (the light beam is completely blocked), the phototransistor 10 says "wafer present".
The signal is transmitted to the Tanabata 11, and at this time the motor 11 does not operate. However, as shown in A), when the wafer is transferred to the air shade at the next instant t5, the light beam path becomes conductive. At this time, the motor 11 operates to remove the wafer 1 in the cartridge 6.
The wafer is lowered one pitch at a time (5). Figures 3 (C) and (D) show other examples of the wafer detection method.
C) is a method of detecting from the rear of the cartridge 6; (D)
This shows a configuration added to the method (C) above as yet another detection means on the back side of the air shade. (D)
In this method, if a wafer is caught for some reason at the air shade entrance, a feedback signal is transmitted from the phototransistor 10 to the motor to prevent the subsequent wafer from being fed. You can choose as appropriate.

The wafer fed onto the air shade enters the alignment table as shown in chain 4 at the other end of the air shade.

First, the wafer l transferred to the other end of the air sheet tool 8 is transferred onto the alignment table 12, and is sucked into a vacuum suction hole provided on the surface of the wafer l, and a brake is applied to suppress the transfer speed. Then, the two guides 13 change the direction in a fixed direction. two guides 13
A positioning pin 14 is placed in the center part # between V as shown in (C).
There are three C bottles, of which the two at both ends remain fixed, but the one in the middle can move back and forth. In addition, on the table 12, there is also an air blowing hole in addition to the above-mentioned true 9 suction holes, so
The wafer is in a floating state. In this state, as shown in (E), the table 12 is tilted by the air cylinder 15 and rotated with the wafer 1 floating thereon, thereby causing the wafer to rotate. Then, when the wafer is gradually rotated in the direction of the arrow as shown in (C), the flat reference surface 16 of the periphery of the wafer l comes into contact with all of the three positioning bins 140, as shown in (D). Automatically stopped positioning is performed. The table 12, which was tilted at this point, is returned to its original position.

The wafer, which has been positioned in a certain direction as described in 5 above, is spatially transferred onto the dicing table by the next wafer chuck while maintaining this alignment direction. Fifth
Ij! J indicates a Bernoulli chuck used as a wafer chuck.

The face to the quest! Wafer holding surface 17 sized according to 1ttC
Air supplied from a tip 19 on the back side of the holding surface 17 is blown from a plurality of nozzles 18 provided in the center of the holder, and the air is blown onto the processing object such as a wafer. According to the so-called Pernoulli principle, [wafer l]
54C works by suctioning.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a positioning portion for the groove provided on a part of the peripheral edge of the holding surface 170, and the wafer is attracted to the holding surface 17 with this portion as a reference. However, this positioning part is not always necessary.

The wafer transferred onto the dicing table 21 (Fig. 2) is sucked by a vacuum chuck placed on the end of this table, and by retracting the table itself, the wafer is transported directly below the microscope 22 and subjected to dicing. Positioning (alignment) is performed for this purpose. This positioning strip is installed under the dicing table 21 and controls the X, Y, and θ direction mechanism (not shown) to move the wafer to a reference plane (coinciding with the position of the dicing blade) provided on the microscope. This is done by aligning the center of the dicing area with the area. A specific example of the positioning work will be described below with reference to FIG. (A) shows the relationship between the reference line 22 and the dicing area 23 that first appeared on the microscopic brocade, and naturally the two do not match. Therefore, first adjust the 0 direction mechanism to complete positioning in the 0 direction as shown in K (13), and then complete the positioning in the 0 direction as shown in (C).
Align the direction 4Ms by a1 to complete the positioning in the Y direction, and finally adjust the VcX direction mechanism as shown in (D) to completely align the center of the base mta 22 and the dicing area 23 to complete the positioning work. Complete.

Next, the dicing blade is scanned along the reference line 22 to perform dicing in the dicing area in the Y direction (or X direction), and then the dicing table is moved to the 9
Rotate by 0° and perform dicing in the dicing area in the X direction (or Y direction). The rotation of the dicing table can be performed automatically. Also, the centers of rotation of the wafer and dicing table are aligned [at least 9
No problem occurs when rotating 0c'.

In addition, since conventional dicing equipment was equipped with a positioning mechanism only in two directions, θ and Y directions, when actually dicing, the
After performing dicing in the Y direction once in C), the dicing table must be rotated 90 degrees and positioned in the X direction again, as shown in (D), and then dicing in the X direction must be performed again. . For this reason, X, Y
Continuous dicing in different directions is impossible, and the work must be interrupted midway to perform CFj and positioning again, which inevitably leads to inefficiency in the work.

*The width of the reference line 22 in the @hogo is determined by taking into account the width of the dicing blade and the degree of chipping during dicing. For example, when the width of the dicing blade is selected to be 30μ, the width is selected to be approximately 50μ including chipping.

Therefore, if you display this dimension on the basic single line, you can know it at a glance if you measure it with other measuring mechanisms each time.

After the dicing operation has been completed, the wafer is returned to its original position by moving the dicing table.

Then, the vacuum suction is released, the air is blown up 1r to float above the table, and the table is sucked by the Bernoulli chuck waiting above and sent to the next cleaning process.

By the way, when dicing the above-mentioned wafers, the wafers are cooled with liquid such as water, so it is very difficult to remove the wafers from the dicing table that are in close contact with the table due to water, etc., and many cracks occur. It was causing defects. For this reason, we considered the following method. #V7
The figure shows an air blowing method, (A) is a top view, (A) is a top view, (
B) shows a cross-sectional view in which air 25 is partially blown onto the wafer 1 from a pipe 24 from diagonally above the wafer 1 to remove liquid around the wafer 5.

The wafer sucked from the dicing table by the Bernoulli chuck is sent to the next cleaning step by rotating the arm of the chuck 900 times.

Figures 8 (A) and (B) show a method for cleaning wafers transferred by the chuck.
The wafer 1 is rotated while being held by the wafer 1, and water is sprayed from above and below by the nozzle 27, thereby cleaning the wafer. After finishing, drain the water and spin dry as shown in (B). This cleaning process removes the deposits that had adhered to the sea urchin and keeps it clean.

Next, the wafer is sucked by the chuck again and transferred to the wafer unloader section by rotating the chuck arm 90 times. That is, the wafer is supplied onto an air chute and is transferred in the opposite direction to that used for micrometer wafers. An empty cartridge is set at the end of the air sheet.
Wafers are sequentially supplied to this cartridge.

The cartridge automatically rises one pitch at a time in accordance with the timing of supply to the sea urchins, and these operating mechanisms can be operated in the opposite direction to the loader.

Automatically alerts you when the cartridge is full,
The operator sets an empty cartridge.

However, the setting and resetting of these cartridges can be performed automatically.

The unino particles stored in the cartridge are sent to the next breaking process, where they are subjected to the desired operations and separated into individual pellets.

As is clear from the above explanation, with the above-mentioned dicing device, all the non-linking from the loading state to the dicing and unloading state of the sea urchin to be diced is automatically performed, and manual work is only required once. Since the dicing process itself is not performed, time is no longer wasted on extra preparatory work as in the past, and the dicing work itself can be performed more intensively, resulting in a significant increase in the number of work starts.

In addition, since manual handling was not required, mechanical damage to the sea urchins caused by this process could be completely prevented.

Furthermore, by configuring the p-da part and the annular part of the wafer adjacent to each other, the dimensions of the apparatus itself can be designed to be extremely compact. Since it is provided in the upper space of the chuck device for spatially transferring the wafers of each worker, it does not take up any extra space. Also, if this chuck is rotated intermittently in a fixed direction (not shown in Fig. 9), the wafers processed in each process are simultaneously transferred to the pyrotechnic chamber, which results in wasted movement. [Work efficiently.]

Although various modifications of each mechanism have been shown in the text, their combinations can be variously modified depending on the purpose, and the device of the present invention is not limited to any particular combination by these modifications.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 (man) to (E) are process diagrams showing the case of performing dicing work using conventional equipment, Section 2 Figure 41 is a top view showing an overview of the present invention equipment, and Figures 3 (A) to ( D) is a sectional view showing the phenol 10-da mechanism, FIG. (D) is a top view, (B) and (E) are cross-sectional views, Figure 5 shows the chuck mechanism, A) is a cross-sectional view, (B) is a bottom view, Figures 6 (A) to (D) Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view showing how to position the Unino 1 on the tasing table.
A) is a top view, (B) is a cross-sectional view, Figures 8 (A) and (B) are cross-sectional views showing the cleaning mechanism of UNINO, and Figure 9 is the operation of UNINO 1 chuck. This is a trajectory showing the state. l...9xノ1.2...Case, 3...Bin set, 4゜21...Dicing table, 5...Dicing table, 6...Cartridge, 7...Unino S- - da position, 8... air chute, 9... light source, 10... phototransistor, 11... motor,
12... Alignment table-13... Guide, 14
...Positioning bottle, 15...Air cylinder, 16
... Unino reference surface, 17 ... Chuck holding surface, 18.27 ... Nozzle, 19° 24 ... Pipe, 20
...Stopper, 22...Microscope base single wire, 23...
・Dicing area for cube, 25...air, 26・
...Vacuum chuck. Figure 1 Figure 2 (CI (D J Figure 5 and A) cBn/U Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a dicing device that cuts the surface of a semiconductor wafer or an integrated circuit wafer with a rotating blade, the loader section for supplying wafers and the unloader section for sending out processed wafers are the same as the above-mentioned rotating blade. A dicing device characterized by a side layout.