JP2009119569A - Cutting device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cutting device capable of preventing a workpiece from being damaged even when a tubular connection member of a waste liquid recovery means is fractured due to deterioration. <P>SOLUTION: The cutting device comprises a waste liquid recovery front end pipe 38 attached to a blade cover 32, a suction means 48 for sucking in waste liquid, a flexible tubular connection member 40 with one end connected to the waste liquid recovery front end pipe 38 and the other end connected to the suction means 48, and an elastic member 46 inserted inside the flexible tubular connection member 40 with one end fixed to the waste liquid recovery front end pipe 38 and the other end fixed to the suction means 48. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates generally to a cutting device, and more particularly to a cutting device capable of preventing cutting chips from adhering to the surface of a workpiece.

  For example, in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a plurality of semiconductor chips in which a circuit such as an IC or LSI is formed by cutting a substantially wafer-shaped semiconductor wafer along a street formed in a lattice shape on the surface thereof. Divide into The semiconductor chip thus divided is packaged and widely used in electronic devices such as mobile phones and personal computers.

  Such cutting is generally performed using a dicing machine (cutting machine). This cutting apparatus includes, for example, a cutting blade having a cutting edge obtained by electroforming diamond abrasive grains or the like in a nickel base material, and a chuck table that holds a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer, and rotates at high speed. The workpiece is cut by feeding the chuck table to the cutting blade while cutting the cutting blade to be cut into the workpiece.

  However, in such a cutting apparatus, when the workpiece is cut by rotating the cutting blade at a high speed, the frictional heat generated between the cutting blade and the workpiece causes wear and damage of the cutting blade, and the workpiece. This may cause chipping in the cutting groove. Therefore, a method of cooling by supplying a cutting fluid (for example, cutting water such as pure water) to the cutting blade or the processing point is adopted.

  As a method of supplying the cutting fluid, a method of injecting and supplying cutting fluid from the side of the cutting blade by a pair of cutting fluid supply nozzles disposed along both side surfaces of the cutting blade in the vicinity of the processing point, or a cutting blade In general, a cutting fluid is supplied to the outer periphery of the cutting blade from the front side of the processing point by an outer peripheral nozzle disposed opposite to the outer periphery.

  Since the cutting fluid supplied to the machining point scatters to the rear side in the rotation direction of the cutting blade together with the cutting waste generated by the cutting processing, the cutting waste may adhere to the surface of the workpiece. In particular, when the workpiece is an image sensor such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or C-MOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor), the adhesion of the cutting scraps to the workpiece is strong.

  For this reason, in cutting of an image sensor such as a CCD or C-MOS, not only does it not peel naturally when the cutting waste adheres to the surface of the workpiece, but also in a cleaning process (spinner cleaning, etc.) after cutting. There is also a problem that the attached cutting waste cannot be easily peeled off.

For these reasons, when cutting an image sensor such as a CCD or C-MOS, the drainage liquid containing the cutting waste floats on the surface of the workpiece and the cutting waste adheres to the workpiece. Drained liquid having a drainage recovery tip on the side where the drainage is scattered due to rotation of the cutting blade to be discharged from the surface, and the drainage recovery tip is connected to the suction means by a tubular connecting member A cutting apparatus provided with a recovery means is proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-69280.
JP 2007-69280 A

  However, by repeatedly operating the cutting device over a long period of time, the tubular connection member of the drainage collecting means ages and eventually breaks, and the broken tubular connection member falls to the workpiece surface and removes the workpiece. It may be damaged.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and the object of the present invention is to provide a drainage collecting means that does not drop even if the tubular connecting member breaks and does not damage the workpiece. It is providing the cutting device provided with.

  According to the present invention, a chuck table for holding a workpiece, a cutting blade for cutting the workpiece held on the chuck table, a blade cover disposed so as to cover the outer periphery of the cutting blade, A cutting fluid supply nozzle attached to the blade cover for supplying the cutting fluid to the cutting blade, and a drainage collecting means provided on the side where the drainage is scattered due to the rotation of the cutting blade, The drainage recovery means includes a drainage recovery tip pipe attached to the blade cover so as to be adjacent to the cutting blade, a suction means for sucking the drainage, and one end connected to the drainage recovery tip pipe. Is connected to the suction means, and a flexible tubular connecting member disposed above the workpiece to prevent contact with the workpiece. Wherein is inserted into the flexible tubular connecting member, one end and the other end is fixed to the drainage recovery pipe end is equipped with a fixed elastic member to said suction means.

  Preferably, the elastic member supports the flexible tubular connecting member and can maintain a shape that prevents the flexible tubular connecting member from hanging down and coming into contact with the workpiece.

  According to the present invention, even if the tubular connection member breaks, the tubular connection member broken by the elastic member can be held, so that the broken tubular connection member can be prevented from dropping onto the workpiece surface. As a result, breakage of the workpiece can be prevented.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an appearance of a cutting apparatus 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention that can divide a workpiece such as a CCD wafer into individual chips (devices).

  On the front side of the cutting device 2, there is provided operating means 4 for an operator to input instructions to the device such as machining conditions. In the upper part of the apparatus, there is provided a display means 6 such as a CRT for displaying a guidance screen for an operator and an image taken by an imaging means described later.

  As shown in FIG. 2, on the surface of the CCD wafer W to be diced, the first street S1 and the second street S2 are formed orthogonally, and the first street S1 and the second street S2 A large number of devices D are formed on the wafer W.

  The wafer W is attached to a dicing tape T that is an adhesive tape, and the outer peripheral edge of the dicing tape T is attached to an annular frame F. As a result, the wafer W is supported by the frame F via the dicing tape T, and a plurality of wafers (for example, 25 sheets) are accommodated in the wafer cassette 8 shown in FIG. The wafer cassette 8 is placed on a cassette elevator 9 that can move up and down.

  Behind the wafer cassette 8, a loading / unloading means 10 for unloading the wafer W before cutting from the wafer cassette 8 and loading the wafer after cutting into the wafer cassette 8 is disposed. Between the wafer cassette 8 and the loading / unloading means 10, a temporary placement area 12, which is an area on which a wafer to be carried in / out, is temporarily placed, is provided. Positioning means 14 for positioning at a certain position is provided.

  In the vicinity of the temporary placement area 12, transport means 16 having a turning arm that sucks and transports the frame F integrated with the wafer W is disposed, and the wafer W carried to the temporary placement area 12 is It is attracted by the transport means 16 and transported onto the chuck table 18 and is sucked by the chuck table 18, and is held on the chuck table 18 by fixing the frame F by a plurality of fixing means 19.

  The chuck table 18 is configured to be rotatable and reciprocally movable in the X-axis direction. Above the movement path of the chuck table 18 in the X-axis direction, an alignment unit 20 that detects a street to be cut of the wafer W is provided. It is arranged.

  The alignment unit 20 includes an imaging unit 22 that images the surface of the wafer W, and can detect a street to be cut by a process such as pattern matching based on an image acquired by imaging. The image acquired by the imaging unit 22 is displayed on the display unit 6.

  A cutting means (cutting unit) 24 for cutting the wafer W held on the chuck table 18 is disposed on the left side of the alignment means 20. The cutting means 24 is configured integrally with the alignment means 20, and both move together in the Y-axis direction and the Z-axis direction.

  The cutting means 24 is configured by attaching a cutting blade 28 to the tip of a rotatable spindle 26 and is movable in the Y-axis direction and the Z-axis direction. The cutting blade 28 is located on the extended line of the imaging means 22 in the X-axis direction.

  Next, the cutting means 24 and the drainage collecting means 54 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The cutting means 24 includes a spindle 26 that is rotationally driven by a servo motor (not shown), and a cutting blade 28 that is detachably attached to the spindle 26.

  The cutting blade 28 has, for example, an ultra-thin cutting edge formed by bonding diamond abrasive grains with a bonding agent at the outer peripheral tip, and the tip of the spindle 26 by fixing means (bolts, nuts, etc.) not shown. It is detachably attached to.

  Reference numeral 32 denotes a blade cover, which is disposed so as to cover the outer periphery of the cutting blade 28, and is fixed to a tip portion of a spindle housing (not shown). The blade cover 32 protects the cutting blade 28, and prevents the cutting fluid and cutting debris associated with the cutting process and the broken pieces of the cutting blade 28 from scattering outside the cutting means 24.

  A support member 34 is attached to the blade cover 32. The support member 34 is disposed on the side where the cutting fluid scatters due to the rotation of the cutting blade 28 so as to face the outer periphery of the cutting blade 28.

  A cutting fluid supply nozzle 30 supplies cutting fluid to the cutting blade 28 and a processing point, and is disposed opposite to both sides of the cutting blade 28 so as to sandwich the cutting blade 28. The cutting fluid supply nozzle 30 is attached to the support member 34.

  The cutting fluid supply nozzle 30 includes a plurality of injection ports on the side facing the cutting blade 28, and sprays cutting fluid such as cutting water from these injection ports toward the lower side of the cutting blade 28 and the processing point. .

  In this way, by supplying cutting fluid from both sides of the cutting blade 28 by the pair of cutting fluid supply nozzles 30, the cutting blade 28 and the processing point are cooled at the time of cutting, and chipping occurs in the wafer W. 28 can be prevented from being damaged.

  A pair of cutting fluid supply ports (only one is shown) 36 connected to a cutting fluid supply source (not shown) is provided on the upper portion of the support member 34, and each cutting fluid supply port 36 is connected to the cutting fluid supply nozzle 30. It is connected.

  A drainage recovery tip pipe 38 is attached to the support member 34. As shown in FIG. 4, which is a view taken in the direction of the arrow IV in FIG. 3, a drainage suction port 39 is formed in the support member 34 to which the drainage recovery tip pipe 38 is attached. As best shown in FIG. 4, a small-diameter pipe 44 is fixed to the lower end portion of the drainage recovery tip pipe 38.

  One end of a tubular connecting member 40 is fitted on the drainage recovery tip pipe 38 and fixed with a fixing band 42. The other end of the tubular connecting member 40 is externally fitted to a suction pipe 48 a of a suction means 48 such as a suction pump and is fixed by a fixing band 50. A small-diameter pipe 52 is fixed in the suction pipe 48. The tubular connecting member 40 needs to be movable along with cutting feed, and is formed of a flexible member such as a bellows tube, for example.

  An elastic member 46 is inserted into the tubular connecting member 40, one end 46 a of the elastic member 46 is inserted into the small diameter pipe 44 fixed to the drainage recovery tip pipe 38, and the other end 46 b is fixed to the suction pipe 48. The small diameter pipe 52 is inserted.

  The inner diameters of the small diameter pipes 44 and 52 are formed to be slightly larger than the diameter of the elastic member 46, one end 46 a of the elastic member 46 is press-fitted into the small diameter pipe 44, and the other end 46 b is press-fitted into the small diameter pipe 52. Is done.

  Thereby, since both ends of the elastic member 46 are stably fixed in the tubular connecting member 40, the tubular connecting member 40 can be stably supported by the elastic member 46. The elastic member 46 is preferably formed of a material that is excellent in mobility and does not attack the tubular connecting member 40, and is made of, for example, a low friction polyurethane tube. The diameter of the elastic member 46 is about 4 mm, for example.

  For example, the elastic member 46 is prevented from coming out of the flexible tubular connecting member 40 by setting the length of the elastic member 46 to 485 mm with respect to the length 450 mm of the flexible tubular connecting member 40.

  A drainage recovery means 54 is constituted by the drainage tip recovery pipe 38, the flexible tubular connecting member 40, the elastic member 46 and the suction means 48. The fixing method of the elastic member 46 is not limited to the above-described method, and may be fixed by another fixing method such as a fixing band. In FIG. 1, the drainage collecting means 54 is not shown.

  Thus, when a wafer W such as a CCD wafer is cut, the cutting blade of the cutting blade 28 that rotates at high speed is cut into the wafer W, and the cutting fluid supply nozzle 30 directs the lower portion of the cutting blade 28 and the processing point. Spray the cutting fluid. The wafer W is cut by the cutting blade 28 while the cutting blade 28 and the processing point are cooled by the cutting fluid.

  As a result, in the vicinity of the machining point, cutting waste generated by cutting the wafer W by the cutting blade 28 is mixed into the cutting fluid supplied from the cutting fluid supply nozzle 30 to be drained. At this time, the cutting waste is floating in the drainage, and the cutting waste does not adhere to the surface of the wafer W.

  The drainage liquid containing such cutting waste is moved to the rear side (left side in FIG. 3) in the rotational direction of the cutting blade 28 by the rotational force of the cutting blade 28 that rotates at high speed, and tries to scatter in that direction. .

  As a result, the drainage fluid flows from the drainage suction port 39 of the support member 34 into the drainage recovery tip pipe 38 by the force that the drainage is about to scatter and the suction force of the suction means 48, and further, the tubular connection member 40. The suction means 48 is sucked through.

  In this embodiment, since the tubular connecting member 40 is supported by the elastic member 46 inserted therein, the tubular connecting member 40 of the drainage collecting means 54 is aged by repeatedly operating the cutting device for a long period of time. Even if it breaks, the broken tubular connecting member 40 is held by the elastic member 46. As a result, the broken tubular connecting member 40 can be prevented from falling onto the surface of the wafer W, and damage to the wafer W can be prevented.

It is an appearance perspective view of a cutting device concerning an embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view which shows the wafer integrated with the flame | frame. It is a front view which shows the principal part of this invention embodiment. FIG. 4 is a view in the direction of arrows IV in FIG. 3.

Explanation of symbols

2 Cutting device 18 Chuck table 24 Cutting means 26 Spindle 28 Cutting blade 30 Cutting fluid supply nozzle 32 Blade cover 38 Drainage recovery tip pipe 39 Drainage suction port 40 Tubular connection member 42, 50 Fixed band 44, 52 Small diameter pipe 46 Elastic member 48 suction means 54 drainage recovery means

Claims (2)

A chuck table for holding the workpiece, a cutting blade for cutting the workpiece held on the chuck table, a blade cover disposed so as to cover the outer periphery of the cutting blade, and a cutting fluid on the cutting blade A cutting fluid supply nozzle attached to the blade cover, and a drainage collecting means provided on the side where the drainage is scattered due to rotation of the cutting blade,
The drainage recovery means includes a drainage recovery tip pipe attached to the blade cover so as to be adjacent to the cutting blade, a suction means for sucking drainage, and one end connected to the drainage recovery tip pipe. In a cutting apparatus comprising an end connected to the suction means and a flexible tubular connecting member disposed above the workpiece to prevent contact with the workpiece,
A cutting apparatus comprising an elastic member inserted into the flexible tubular connecting member, having one end fixed to the drainage recovery tip pipe and the other end fixed to the suction means.   The said elastic member can maintain the shape which supports the said flexible tubular connection member, and prevents that this flexible tubular connection member hangs down and contacts the said workpiece. Cutting equipment.

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