JP2003045823A - Scribing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a scribing apparatus which can prevent a scriber from deflecting in a dividing direction without increasing the rigidity of an arm to which the scriber is attached. SOLUTION: This scribing apparatus has a chuck table 33 holding an object and a scriber unit 6 forming scribe lines on the surface of the object held by the chuck table 33. The scriber unit 6 has a base 61, an arm 62 whose middle part is supported by the base 61 so as to rotate in a plane vertical to the object holding surface of the chuck table 33, a scriber attached to one end of the arm 62, a loading means 64 which applies a prescribed load to the other end of the arm 62 so as to make the one end of the arm 62 turn toward the object holding surface, and a deflection restricting means 7 which restricts the relative displacement of the arm 62 to the base 61 in a dividing and feeding direction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a scribing device for forming scribe lines on the surface of a work piece.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a semiconductor device manufacturing process, circuits such as ICs and LSIs are formed on a large number of regions arranged in a lattice on a surface of a semiconductor wafer having a substantially disk shape, and each circuit on which the circuits are formed is formed. Individual semiconductor elements are manufactured by dicing the regions along predetermined streets (cutting lines). For the dicing of this semiconductor wafer, generally, a cutting device is used which cuts the street by rotating a disc-shaped cutting blade and relatively moving it along the street. However, when the cutting device is used, the width of the street needs to be three times or more the width of the cutting blade in consideration of the chipping caused by the cutting by the cutting blade. For example, when a cutting blade having a blade width of 15 μm is used, the width of the street is 50 μm or more.

Scribing has been conventionally used as a dicing method capable of reducing the width of the street as compared with the above-mentioned cutting device. In this scribing, a scribe line is formed along the street with a diamond cutter (scriber), but the width of the scribe line formed is 10 μ even if chipping is taken into consideration.
The width of the street is 10 μm or less.

[0004]

In the conventional scribing apparatus, a scriber is attached to the tip of the swingably supported arm member and a predetermined load is applied to the arm member by the load applying means. As a result, the scriber is pressed against the workpiece. However, since the above-mentioned scribing device is configured to receive the processing load in all directions that acts on the scriber mounted on the tip of the arm member at the swing fulcrum of the arm member, if the supporting rigidity of the arm member is low, the scribing line The scriber, which is a direction perpendicular to, shakes in the indexing direction. That is, when the scribe line is formed along the street formed on the surface of the workpiece, the undulation of the street causes a load in the indexing direction, which is a direction perpendicular to the scribe line, to act on the scriber. If the support rigidity is low, the scriber will shake in the indexing direction, resulting in a scribe line deviation of about 6 μm. In order to eliminate the deviation in the indexing direction of the scriber, the rigidity and support rigidity of the arm member should be increased,
The weight of the arm member increases and the moment of inertia increases. For this reason, when the scriber bounces due to the ups and downs of the street, the arm member has a large moment of inertia, which delays the return of the scriber, thus making it impossible to form a continuous scribe line. Therefore, in the conventional scribing device, the feed rate is 50 mm / s.
Since it is carried out at ec or less, the productivity is not always satisfactory.

The present invention has been made in view of the above facts, and its main technical problem is to prevent the scriber from shaking in the indexing direction without increasing the rigidity of the arm member on which the scriber is mounted. Is provided.

[0006]

In order to solve the main technical problems described above, according to the present invention, a chuck table having a workpiece holding surface for holding a workpiece, and a workpiece holding of the chuck table are provided. A scribe line forming a scribe line on the surface of the workpiece held on the surface, a scribe line forming feed means for relatively moving the chuck table and the scribe unit in the scribe line forming feed direction, and the chuck table And a scriber unit that moves the scriber unit relatively in an indexing feed direction perpendicular to the scribe line generation feed direction, in a scribing device, wherein the scriber unit includes a base member and an intermediate portion of the base member. It is possible to rotate in the plane perpendicular to the workpiece holding surface of the chuck table. A held arm member, a scriber attached to one end of the arm member, and one end of the arm member acting on the other end of the arm member toward the workpiece holding surface side of the chuck table. A scribing device, comprising: a load applying means for applying a predetermined load so as to rotate, and a shake restricting means for restricting a displacement of the arm member in the indexing feed direction with respect to the base member. Will be provided.

The shake restricting member includes a pair of needle bearings arranged on both sides in the indexing feed direction at one end of the arm member, and a pair of bearing brackets holding the pair of needle bearings. The pair of bearing brackets are fixed to the base so as to sandwich the arm member by the pair of needle bearings.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of a scribing apparatus constructed according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a scribing device constructed according to the present invention. The scribing device shown in FIG. 1 includes a substantially rectangular parallelepiped device housing 10. In this device housing 10,
A stationary base 2 shown in FIG. 2 and a chuck table mechanism 3 that is arranged on the stationary base 2 so as to be movable in a direction indicated by an arrow X, which is a scribe line generation feed direction, and holds a workpiece.
And a scriber unit support mechanism 4 disposed on the stationary base 2 so as to be movable in the direction indicated by the arrow Y which is the index feed direction (the direction perpendicular to the direction indicated by the arrow X which is the scribe line generation feed direction). It is set up.

The chuck table mechanism 3 has two guide rails 31 and 32 arranged in parallel on the stationary base 2 along a direction indicated by an arrow X, and an arrow X on the guide rails 31 and 32. The chuck table 33 is provided as a workpiece holding means arranged so as to be movable in the direction indicated by.
The chuck table 33 includes a suction chuck support base 331 movably arranged on the guide rails 31 and 32,
The suction chuck 332 includes a suction chuck 332 mounted on the suction chuck support base 331 and having a workpiece holding surface 332a, and a support table 333 arranged below the workpiece holding surface 332a of the suction chuck 332 by a predetermined height. The workpiece holding surface 332a of the suction chuck 332 holds a workpiece, for example, a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer, by suction means (not shown).

The chuck table mechanism 3 in the illustrated embodiment includes a chuck table 33 and two guide rails 3.
It is provided with a driving means 34 for moving in the direction indicated by the arrow X along 1, 32. The drive means 34 is the above-mentioned 2
It includes a male screw rod 341 arranged in parallel between the guide rails 31 and 32 of the book, and a drive source such as a servo motor 342 for rotationally driving the male screw rod 341.
One end of the male screw rod 341 is rotatably supported by a bearing block 343 fixed to the stationary base 2, and the other end is transmission-coupled to an output shaft of the servo motor 342 via a reduction gear (not shown). ing. The male screw rod 341 is screwed into a penetrating female screw hole formed in a female screw block (not shown) provided so as to project from the lower surface of the central portion of the suction chuck support base 331 that constitutes the chuck table 33. Therefore, by driving the male screw rod 341 in the forward and reverse directions by the servo motor 342, the chuck table 33 is moved to the guide rails 31 and 3.
It is moved along 2 in the direction indicated by arrow X. Therefore, the servo motor 342, the male screw rod 341, and the bearing block 343 function as a scribe line generating / feeding unit that relatively moves the chuck table and a scriber unit, which will be described later, in the scribe line generating / feeding direction indicated by the arrow X. . The chuck table mechanism 3 also includes a rotation mechanism (not shown) that rotates the chuck table 33.

The scriber unit support mechanism 4 includes two guide rails 41, 42 arranged in parallel on the stationary base 2 along the indexing feed direction indicated by arrow Y, and on the guide rails 41, 42. The movable support base 43 is provided so as to be movable in the direction indicated by the arrow Y. The movable support base 43 includes a movable support portion 431 movably arranged on the guide rails 41 and 42, and a mounting portion 432 attached to the movable support portion 431. Mounting part 4
Two guide rails 432a and 432a extending in the direction indicated by arrow Z are provided in parallel on one side surface. Scriber unit support mechanism 4 in the illustrated embodiment
Is a drive means 4 for moving the movable support base 43 along the two guide rails 41, 42 in the direction indicated by the arrow Y.
4 is equipped. The driving means 44 is a male screw rod 4 arranged in parallel between the two guide rails 41 and 42.
41 and a drive source such as a pulse motor 442 for rotating the male screw rod 441. One end of the male screw rod 441 is rotatably supported by a bearing block (not shown) fixed to the stationary base 2, and the other end is transmission-coupled to the output shaft of the pulse motor 442 via a reduction gear (not shown). Has been done. The male screw rod 441 is screwed into a female screw hole formed in a female screw block (not shown) provided on the lower surface of the central portion of the moving support portion 431 that constitutes the movable support base 43.
For this reason, the male screw rod 4 is driven by the pulse motor 442.
The movable support base 43 is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow Y along the guide rails 42, 42 by driving 41 to rotate forward and backward. Therefore, the pulse motor 442, the male screw rod 441, etc. relatively move the chuck table and a scriber unit to be described later in the indexing feed direction indicated by the arrow Y perpendicular to the scribe line generating feed direction (arrow X direction). Function as.

The scriber unit support mechanism 4 in the illustrated embodiment comprises a unit holder 51 and a unit support member 52 attached to the unit holder 51. The unit holder is provided with two guided rails 51a, 51a slidably fitted in two guide rails 432a, 432a provided on the mounting portion 432, and the guided rails 51a, 51a are provided. Is fitted to the guide rails 432a and 432a, so that the guide rails 432a and 432a are movably supported in the direction indicated by arrow Z. The scribe unit supporting mechanism 4 in the illustrated embodiment is a holder 51.
The arrow Z along the two guide rails 432a and 432a.
Drive means 53 for moving in the direction indicated by is provided. The driving means 55 drives the male screw rod (not shown) arranged between the guide rails 432a and 432a, and the pulse motor 532 for rotationally driving the male screw rod, as in the driving means 34 and 44. A pulse motor 532 drives a male screw rod (not shown) in the forward direction and the reverse direction to drive the unit holder 51 and the unit support member 52 into the guide rail 432.
a and 432a in the direction indicated by arrow Z.

The scriber unit 6 is attached to the tip of the unit support member 52 which constitutes the scriber unit support mechanism 4. Figure 2 shows the scriber unit 6.
And it demonstrates with reference to FIG. The scriber unit 6 in the illustrated embodiment includes the unit support member 53.
Member 61 attached to the tip of the arm member 62 and an arm member 62 in which an intermediate portion of the base member 61 is rotatably supported.
A scribe 63 attached to one end of the arm member 62, and a scribe 6 acting on the other end of the arm member 62.
3 is provided with a load applying means 64 for applying a predetermined load.

The base member 61 is formed in a rectangular shape,
Two mounting holes 611, 611 for mounting the unit supporting member 53 are provided in the central portion thereof, and mounting bolts 65 are inserted through the mounting holes 611, 611.
The unit support member 52 is attached to the unit support member 52 by screwing 1, 651 into a screw hole (not shown) formed in the tip surface of the unit support member 52. A support boss 612 provided with a screw hole 612 a for supporting the arm member 62 is provided on the surface of the base member 61 opposite to the side where the base member 61 is attached to the unit support member 52. Further, a stopper portion 613 for restricting the rotation of the arm member 62 is formed at the rear end of the base member 61 so as to project.

The arm member 62 has a mounting hole 6 in the middle.
21 are provided, and are supported by the base member 61 through the mounting holes 621 by the arm support means 66 described later. The arm member 62 is provided at one end with a scriber mounting portion 622 formed so as to project downward, and at the other end, extends horizontally toward the base member 61 and has a screw hole 623a.
The adjustment screw mounting portion 623 having the above is provided. The adjusting screw attaching portion 623 is configured to be positioned below the stopper portion 613 provided at the rear end of the base member 61. In addition, an engagement groove 624 that engages with a piston rod of an air cylinder that constitutes load applying means 64 described later is formed on the lower surface between the rear end of the arm member 62 and the mounting hole 621.

The arm support means 66 for rotatably supporting the intermediate portion of the arm member 62 on the base member 61 comprises a support bolt 661, a coil spring 662 and a collar 663, and the axial direction of the chuck table 33 covers the chuck table 33. Support bolts 66 arranged parallel to the workpiece holding surface 332a
1 is inserted into the coil spring 662 and the collar 663, inserted into the attachment hole 621 of the arm member 62, and then screwed into the screw hole 612a formed in the support boss 612 provided in the base member 61, thereby 62 is rotatably supported around the support bolt 661. In this way, the support bolts 661 arranged in the axial direction parallel to the workpiece holding surface 332a of the chuck table 33.
An arm member 62 whose middle portion is rotatably supported by
Is rotatably supported in a plane perpendicular to the workpiece holding surface 332a of the chuck table 33.
The arm support means 66 adjusts the tightening force of the support bolt 661 to adjust the arm member 62 and the support boss 6.
The frictional force generated between 12 and the collar 663 can be adjusted.

As described above, the adjusting screw mounting portion 623 provided at the other end of the arm member 62 whose intermediate portion is rotatably supported by the base member 61 has a screw hole 623a.
The adjusting screw 67 is screwed into the. The tip of the adjusting screw 67 abuts the lower surface of the stopper portion 613 provided at the rear end of the base member 61, whereby the rotation of the arm member 62 is restricted. Therefore, the rotation restricting position of the arm member 62 can be adjusted by advancing and retracting the adjusting screw 67.

A scriber 63 is attached to the lower end of the scriber mounting portion 622. The scriber 63 in the illustrated embodiment has, for example, a diameter of 1.8 mm and a width of 0.
It consists of a roller scriber made of 8 mm sintered diamond. Such a roller scriber 63
Are rotatably supported by a support shaft 68 attached to the lower end of the scriber mounting portion 622.

The load applying means 64 is the air cylinder 6
41, a piston rod 642 mounted on a piston slidably arranged in the air cylinder 641, and a mounting plate 643 mounted on the outer peripheral surface of the air cylinder 641. The mounting plate 643 is provided with two screw holes (not shown) at the top and bottom, and the two bolt insertion holes 6 provided on the base member 61 are provided in the screw holes.
The air cylinder 641 is fixed to the base member 61 by screwing two mounting bolts 69, 69, which are arranged by inserting 14 and 614 from the back side of the base member 61. An engaging portion 642a bent substantially at a right angle is provided at the tip of the piston rod 642, and the engaging portion 642a is provided in the engaging groove 6 provided in the arm member 62.
24 are adapted to be engaged. When air is supplied to the air cylinder 641 by an air supply unit (not shown), the load applying unit 64 configured as described above operates the piston rod 642 upward to move the arm member 62 around the support bolt 661. The end side is lifted, and the roller scriber 63 attached to one end of the arm member 62 is pushed down. As a result, when scribing,
The roller scriber 63 is pressed against the semiconductor wafer 11 held by the chuck table 33 with a predetermined load. It is desirable that this load is about 1 Newton (1N).

The scriber unit 6 in the illustrated embodiment is provided with a shake restricting means 7 for restricting the displacement of the arm member 62 in the indexing direction with respect to the base member 61. The shake restricting means 7 is provided near the one end of the arm member 62, that is, the scriber mounting portion 622.
A pair of first bearing bracket 71a and second bearing bracket 71b arranged on both sides in the two indexing direction (direction of arrow Y), and mounted on the first bearing bracket 71a and second bearing bracket 71b, respectively. A pair of first
Second needle bearing 72a and second needle bearing 72b
And two spacer collars 73 arranged between the first bearing bracket 71a and the second bearing bracket 71b.
a, 73b, two tightening bolts 74a, 74b, and two coil springs 75a, 75b. The first bearing bracket 71a and the second bearing bracket 71b are provided with bearing mounting recesses 711a and 711b, respectively, on their side surfaces facing each other, and bolt insertion holes 712a are provided above and below the bearing mounting recesses 711a and 711b, respectively. , 712a and 712b, 712
b is provided. Bearings mounted by fitting the first and second seconddle bearings 72a and 72b into the bearing mounting recesses 711a and 711b of the first and second bearing brackets 71a and 71b configured as described above. The assembly is arranged on both sides of the arm member 62. Then, the tightening bolts 74a and 74b are respectively connected to the coil springs 75a and 75b and the second bearing bracket 71b.
Bolt holes 712b and 712b, spacer collars 73a and 73b, and first bearing bracket 71a
Is inserted into the bolt insertion holes 712a, 712a provided in the base member 61 and screwed into the two screw holes 614, 614 provided at one end of the base member 61 to give a predetermined tightening force, thereby With the arm member 62 being sandwiched by the second idler bearing 72a and the second idler bearing 72b.
Bearing bracket 71a and second bearing bracket 7
1b is fixed to the base member 61. As described above, since the shake restricting means 7 clamps both sides of the arm member 62 by the first 2-dollar bearing 72a and the second 2-dollar bearing 72b, the arm member 62 is indexed while allowing the arm member 62 to rotate. The displacement in the direction (arrow Y direction), that is, the blur can be regulated. It should be noted that it is desirable to suppress this blur to less than 1 μm.

Returning to FIG. 1, the scribing apparatus shown in the figure has a cassette 12 for stocking a semiconductor wafer 11 as a workpiece, a workpiece unloading means 13, a workpiece conveying means 14, and a cleaning means. 15 and cleaning / conveying means 1
6, and an alignment means 17 composed of a microscope, a CCD camera and the like. Further, the illustrated scribing device includes a display unit 18 that displays an image captured by the alignment unit 17. The semiconductor wafer 11 is mounted on the frame 111 with the tape 112, and is housed in the cassette 12 while being mounted on the frame 111. Also, cassette 1
2 is placed on a cassette table 121 which is arranged so as to be movable up and down by an elevating means (not shown).

Next, the processing operation of the above-mentioned scribing device will be briefly described. A semiconductor wafer 11 mounted on a frame 111 housed in a predetermined position of a cassette 12 (hereinafter, the semiconductor wafer 11 mounted on the frame 111 is simply referred to as a semiconductor wafer 11) is a cassette table by an elevating means (not shown). The 121 moves up and down to be positioned at the carry-out position. Next, the workpiece unloading means 13 moves forward and backward to unload the semiconductor wafer 11 positioned at the unloading position to the workpiece placement area 19. The semiconductor wafer 11 carried out to the workpiece placement area 19 is transported by the turning operation of the workpiece transport means 14 onto the suction chuck 332 of the chuck table 33 constituting the chuck table mechanism 3, and the suction chuck 332. Is held by suction. The chuck table 33 which holds the semiconductor wafer 11 by suction in this way is moved to a position right below the alignment means 17 along the guide rails 31 and 32. When the chuck table 33 is positioned directly below the alignment means 17, the semiconductor wafer 1 is moved by the alignment means 17.
The street (scribing line) formed in 1 is detected, and precise alignment work is performed with the roller scriber 63 of the scriber unit 6.

After that, the chuck table 33 holding the semiconductor wafer 11 by suction is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow X, which is the scribe line generation feed direction, so that the semiconductor wafer 11 held by the chuck table 33 is moved by the roller scriber 3. A scribe line is formed along a predetermined street. That is, the roller scriber 63 is pressed against the semiconductor wafer 11 with a predetermined load by the load applying means 64 as described above,
By moving the chuck table 33 along the lower side of the roller scriber 63 in the scribing line generation feed direction, a scribe line is formed on the semiconductor wafer 11 held by the chuck table 33 by the roller scriber 63 along a predetermined street. To be done. At this time,
Since the displacement of the arm member 62 supporting the roller scriber 63 in the direction indicated by the arrow Y, which is the indexing feed direction, is regulated by the blurring restricting means 7, the roller scriber 63 is prevented from blurring in the indexing feed direction, and is precise. A scribe line can be formed. in this way,
By providing the shake restricting means 7, it is possible to prevent the scriber from shaking in the indexing direction without increasing the rigidity and supporting rigidity of the arm member that supports the scriber. Therefore, the arm member is made of a lightweight material such as aluminum or synthetic resin. Can be configured with. Therefore, the moment of inertia of the arm member 62 supporting the scriber becomes small, so that the scriber can follow the undulations of the streets formed on the semiconductor wafer 11, and the bounce phenomenon can be reduced. As described above, by providing the shake restricting means 7, the moment of inertia of the arm member can be reduced and the bouncing phenomenon can be reduced. Therefore, the scribe line generation feed speed can be increased to 100 to 200 mm / sec, and the productivity can be improved. Can be improved.

After forming the scribe lines along the streets of the semiconductor wafer 11 as described above, the chuck table 3 holding the semiconductor wafer 11 is formed.
3 is returned to the position where the semiconductor wafer 11 was first suction-held, and the suction-holding of the semiconductor wafer 11 is released here. Next, the semiconductor wafer 11 is transferred to the cleaning means 15 by the cleaning transfer means 16 and cleaned there. The semiconductor wafer 11 thus washed is carried out to the workpiece placement area 19 by the workpiece transport means 14. Then, the semiconductor wafer 11 is stored in a predetermined position of the cassette 12 by the workpiece unloading means 13.

[0026]

Since the scribing device according to the present invention is constructed as described above, it has the following effects.

That is, according to the present invention, since the scriber unit is provided with the shake restricting means for restricting the displacement of the arm member having the scriber mounted on the base member in the indexing feed direction, the indexing feed direction of the scriber. It is possible to form a precise scribe line by preventing the blurring. Further, by providing the shake restricting means, it is possible to prevent the scriber from shaking in the indexing direction without increasing the rigidity and the supporting rigidity of the arm member supporting the scriber. Therefore, the arm member can be made of a lightweight material such as aluminum or synthetic resin. It can be composed of materials. Therefore, the moment of inertia of the arm member supporting the scriber becomes small, so that the scriber can follow the undulations of the street formed on the workpiece well, and the bounce phenomenon can be reduced. In addition, since the moment of inertia of the arm member can be reduced and the bouncing phenomenon can be reduced, the scribe line generation feed speed can be increased and the productivity can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a scribing device constructed in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of the scribing device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a scriber unit that constitutes the dicing device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

2: Stationary base 3: Chuck tail mechanism 31, 32: Guide rails for chuck table mechanism 33: Chuck table of chuck table mechanism 34: Driving means for chuck table mechanism 4: Scriber unit support mechanism 41, 42: Guide rail of chuck table mechanism 43: Movable support base of chuck table mechanism 44: Driving means for chuck table mechanism 51: Unit holder 52: Unit support member 6: Scriber unit 61: Base member 62: Arm member 63: Laura Scriber 64: load applying means 641: Air cylinder 642: piston rod 643: Mounting plate 67: Adjustment screw 7: Blur control means 71a: First bearing bracket 71b: Second bearing bracket 72a: first needle bearing 72b: second needle bearing 73a, 73b: Spacer collar 74a, 74b: Tightening bolt 75a, 75b: Coil spring 10: Device housing 12: cassette 13: Workpiece unloading means 14: Workpiece conveying means 15: Cleaning means 16: Cleaning / conveying means 17: alignment means 18: Display means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A chuck table having a workpiece holding surface for holding a workpiece, and a scribe unit for forming a scribe line on the surface of the workpiece held on the workpiece holding surface of the chuck table. A scribing line generating and feeding means for relatively moving the chuck table and the scriber unit in the scribing line generating and feeding direction, and the chuck table and the scriber unit relatively in an indexing feeding direction perpendicular to the scribing line generating and feeding direction. In a scribing device comprising moving indexing feed means, the scriber unit is rotatable in a plane perpendicular to a workpiece holding surface of the chuck table, the base member and an intermediate portion of the base member. Arm member supported by the arm member and a scriber attached to one end of the arm member. A load applying means for applying a predetermined load to the other end of the arm member so as to rotate one end of the arm member toward the workpiece holding surface of the chuck table; and the base member. In contrast to the above, the scribing device is provided with a shake restricting means for restricting displacement of the arm member in the indexing feed direction. 2. The shake restricting means comprises a pair of needle bearings arranged on both sides in the indexing feed direction at one end of the arm member, and a pair of bearing brackets holding the pair of needle bearings. The scribing device according to claim 1, wherein the pair of bearing brackets are fixed to the base so as to sandwich the arm member by the pair of needle bearings.