JP2003124148A - Dicing device provided with blade detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a dicing device having a rotating blade tip detector, capable of shortening the detecting time for an increase in operation rate without detection-responsible degradation in work precision. SOLUTION: The blade tip detector 20 is provided at a specified level just above the rotating blade 11, and is moved interlocked with the indexed movement of the blade 11 in the Y-direction relative to the work, and this enables the detector 20 to stay just above the blade 11 at all times. The tip position of the blade 11 is detected by merely elevating the blade 11 in the Z-direction, and this shortens the detecting time greatly and, since detection is accomplished with the blade 11 not displaced from the working line, causes no degradation in work precision.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dicing device for grooving or cutting a workpiece such as a semiconductor or electronic component material, and more particularly to a dicing device equipped with a blade detector for detecting the tip position of a rotary blade.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a dicing device for grooving or cutting a work such as a semiconductor or an electronic component material, the work is processed by applying cutting water with a thin grindstone called a blade that rotates at high speed. In this dicing device, it is important that the uncut amount of the work is precisely matched with the set value. For this purpose, positioning of the blade in the Z-axis (cutting direction) is required to be highly accurate, and its repeatability is also required to be highly accurate. Further, it is necessary to constantly correct the wear amount of the blade. Therefore, when processing a set number of work lines, the blade detector that detects the blade tip position (blade tip position) detects the blade tip position,
The Z axis is controlled so that the blade tip is always kept at the same height. As this blade detector, an optical non-contact detector is used.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional dicing apparatus equipped with a blade detector. As shown in FIG. 4, Y, Z
There is a spindle 12 that is moved in the Y and Z directions by a drive means 13, and a rotary blade 11 is attached to the tip of the spindle 12. The work processing table 14 on which the work is placed is moved by the X carriage 15A.
It is cut and fed in the direction. The X carriage 15A has a blade detector 2 having optical systems such as prisms 24 and 24A.
0 is provided.

[0004]

However, in this conventional dicing apparatus, the blade detector 20 is fixed at a position apart from the work processing table 14. The fixed position is a position where it does not interfere with the largest one of the work processing tables to be replaced according to the size of the work. For this reason, especially when the work size is small, the rotary blade 1
The 1 must be positioned over the blade detector 20 with extra distance sent in the X and Y directions. Therefore, there was a problem that the whole processing time becomes long and the operation rate of the dicing machine is lowered. Further, since the rotary blade 11 is once deviated from the work processing line and detected, it has to be repositioned after the detection, which causes a decrease in accuracy.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and shortens the time for detecting the tip of the rotary blade in a dicing device equipped with a blade detector for detecting the position of the blade edge of the rotary blade. An object of the present invention is to provide a dicing device that can improve the operating rate and that does not cause a reduction in processing accuracy due to the blade edge position detection of the rotating blade.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a rotary blade which is relatively index-feeded in the Y direction and cut-feeded in the Z direction relative to a work, and the work is placed on the rotary blade. In the dicing device, which has a work processing table that is cut and fed relatively to the rotary blade in the X direction, and which performs groove processing and cutting processing of the work by the rotary blade, A blade detector for detecting the tip position of the rotating blade is provided at a constant position in the Z direction on the upward extension line. Further, the blade detector is index-fed relative to the workpiece in the Y-direction in association with relative index-feeding of the rotary blade in the Y-direction.

According to the present invention, a blade detector for detecting the tip position of the rotary blade is provided at a fixed height position directly above the rotary blade, and is interlocked with the relative Y-direction index feed of the rotary blade to the work. The blade detectors are always positioned directly above the rotating blades because they are fed relative to each other. Therefore, when detecting the tip position of the rotary blade, it is sufficient to simply raise the rotary blade in the Z direction, and therefore the detection time can be greatly shortened. Further, since the rotary blade is detected without deviating from the machining line of the work, the machining accuracy is not deteriorated.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of a cutting apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In each figure, the same members are given the same numbers.

First, the structure of the dicing apparatus will be described. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the outer appearance of a dicing device. The dicing device 10 has a rotary blade 1 at the tip.
High frequency motor built-in spindle 1
Work processing table 1 that holds 2 and 12 and the work by suction
4, a cleaning unit 40 for spin-cleaning processed works, a load port 60 for mounting a cassette storing a large number of works, a transfer unit 50 for transferring the works, and the like. Has been done.

The structure of the processing section 30 is as shown in FIG.
On the side surface of the Y base 16C, two Y carriages 16A, 16A are provided which are guided by Y guides 16B, 16B and are driven in the Y direction shown by an arrow Y in the drawing by a stepping motor and a ball screw (not shown).
The Y carriages 16A and 16A have Z guides 17B and
A Z carriage 17A is provided which is guided by 17B and is driven in the Z direction indicated by arrow Z in the figure by a stepping motor and a ball screw (not shown).
A spindle 12 with a built-in high-frequency motor having a blade 11 attached to its tip is fixed to each of the two Z carriages 17A and 17A, and is arranged so as to face each other. On the other hand, the X carriage 15A shown in FIG. 1 is guided by an X guide provided on an X base (not shown) and is driven in the X direction by a linear motor. The X carriage 15A is provided with the work processing table 14 via a rotary table that rotates in the θ direction. Since the structure of the machining unit 30 is as described above, the rotary blade 11 is index-fed in the Y direction and is cut and fed in the Z direction, and the work machining table 14 is cut and fed in the X direction.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of the essential parts of the dicing apparatus of the present invention, and shows only one spindle 12 of the pair of spindles 12, 12 arranged opposite to each other. As shown in FIG. 3, a work processing table 14 for picking up and placing a work is attached to the X carriage 15A, and the drive mechanism described above makes it possible to perform X operation perpendicular to the plane of the drawing.
It is cut and fed in the direction. On the other hand, the Y carriage 16A is
Similarly, the drive mechanism described above feeds the index in the Y direction in the drawing. A Z carriage 17A is attached to the Y carriage 16A, and similarly, the Z carriage 17A is cut and fed in the Z direction in the drawing by the drive mechanism described above. Further, the Z carriage 17A is provided with a spindle 12 holding a rotary blade 11 at its tip. Y carriage 16
A blade detector 20 that detects the tip of the rotating blade 11 is attached to the holder 16D fixed to A.
It is mounted so that it is located directly above 1. The blade detector 20 includes a light source 21, a glass fiber 22, lens groups 23 and 23A, prisms 24 and 24A, a light receiving section 26,
It comprises data processing means 27, blade displacement calculation means 28, and the like. Further, the dicing apparatus 10 has a blade height control means 81 and a Z-axis control means 82, and the height of the rotary blade 11 is controlled by connecting to the blade detector 20.

Next, the operation of the dicing apparatus 10 thus constructed will be described. First, when a cassette accommodating a large number of works is placed on the load port 60 shown in FIG. 1, the works are pulled out from the cassette by the carrying means 50 and carried to the post-processing section 30 after being aligned by the unillustrated alignment means. To be done. Processing part 30
Then, the rotary blade 11 rotating at high speed is sent in the Y direction and positioned on the first processing line. Next, cutting water and cooling water are supplied to the tip of the rotary blade 11 and the processing point. In this state, the work is cut and fed in the X direction, whereby the first one line is processed. Next, the rotary blade 11 is fed by one pitch index in the Y direction, and the next line is processed. When the preset number of lines are processed, the tip position of the rotary blade 11 is detected and the wear of the rotary blade 11 is corrected. The detection of the tip position of the rotary blade 11 will be described later. After the wear correction, the next line is continuously processed. When all the lines in one direction are processed by repeating this operation, the rotary table is rotated by 90 degrees θ, and the lines are processed first and the lines orthogonal to the lines are processed. When the processing is completed, the transportation means 5
At 0, it is transported to the cleaning unit 40 and spin cleaned. The cleaned work is returned to the original cassette by the transporting means 50 again. The above is the flow of one work piece processed by the dicing device 10.

Next, the operation of detecting the tip position of the rotary blade will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the light beam projected from the light source 21 passes through the glass fiber 22, is then condensed by the lens group 23, is reflected in the Y direction by the prism 24, forms a sampling area 25 on the way, and is then diffused. To do.
The diffused light flux is reflected by the prism 24A, and the lens group 2
The light is condensed at 3 A and reaches the light receiving unit 26. While spindle 1
The rotary blade 11 held on the Z carriage 17
The movement of A in the Z direction gradually rises from just below the blade detector 20 and blocks the light flux in the sampling area 25 described above. The light receiving unit 26 converts the change in the amount of received light at this time into an electric signal and sends it to the data processing means 27. The data processing unit 27 processes the data of the change curve of the received light amount, and the blade displacement calculation unit 28 calculates the displacement of the blade tip by comparing the reference received light amount change curve with the measured received light amount change curve. The upper surface height Zt of the work processing table 14
And the reference detection height Zc of the blade detector 20 are known in advance, the blade height control means 81 determines from the obtained displacement of the blade tip the rotary blade 11
Calculates the required height position of the Z axis control means 82
To control.

As described above, in the present invention, in detecting the tip (blade edge) position of the rotary blade 11, the rotary blade 11 may simply move up and block the sampling area 25 of the blade detector 20. Therefore, the time required for detection can be significantly reduced.

In this embodiment, the blade detector 20 is used.
Is attached to the Y carriage 16A and is sent in the Y direction together with the spindle 12, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a drive mechanism different from the drive mechanism of the Y carriage 16A is provided,
It may be configured to move in the Y direction in conjunction with the rotary blade 11.

Further, in implementing the present invention, an existing automatic opening / closing type flange cover is used as the flange cover covering the rotary blade 11.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, the blade detector for detecting the tip position of the rotary blade is provided at a fixed height position directly above the rotary blade, and the relative position of the rotary blade with respect to the workpiece. Since the blades are fed relative to each other in the Y-direction index feed, the blade detector is always positioned directly above the rotating blade. Therefore, when detecting the tip position of the rotary blade, it is sufficient to simply raise the rotary blade in the Z direction, and therefore the detection time can be greatly shortened. Therefore, the total operation rate of the dicing device can be improved. Further, since the tip position can be detected without deviating from the machining line of the work, the machining accuracy is not deteriorated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a dicing device.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a mechanism of a processing unit of the dicing device.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a main part configuration of a dicing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing a conventional dicing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Dicing device, 11 ... Rotating blade, 12 ... Spindle, 14 ... Work processing table, 15A ... X carriage, 16A ... Y carriage, 17A ... Z carriage, 20 ... Blade detector, Zc ... Reference detection height of blade detector Zt ... Height of work table top surface

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Noriaki Ebisu             9-7 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka City, Tokyo Stocks             Company Tokyo Seimitsu (72) Inventor Takayuki Asano             9-7 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka City, Tokyo Stocks             Company Tokyo Seimitsu

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A rotary blade for performing index feed in the Y direction and cut feed in the Z direction relative to a work, and a cutting feed in the X direction relative to the rotary blade on which the work is mounted. In a dicing device for performing groove processing and cutting processing of the work by the rotating blade, a workpiece processing table is provided, in which the rotating blade has a fixed position in the Z direction on an upward extension line of the apex of the rotating blade. A dicing device comprising a blade detector for detecting a tip position. 2. The blade detector is index-fed relative to the workpiece in the Y-direction in association with relative index-feeding of the rotary blade in the Y-direction. The dicing device described.