JP3275299B2 - Dicing apparatus and dressing method for cutting blade - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dicing apparatus, and more particularly to a dicing apparatus for cutting a semiconductor wafer (work) in a grid pattern.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional dicing apparatus has a work cutting section, a cassette accommodating section and a conveying means in a main body of the apparatus. A cassette containing a large number of wafers is stored in the cassette storage section. The wafers stored in the cassette are pulled out one by one by the transfer means and transferred to the work cutting section. In this work cutting section, the wafer is positioned at a predetermined cutting position and then cut in a grid pattern by the cutting blade of the work cutting section. Then, the cut wafer is transferred to the cassette storage section by the transfer means and stored in a predetermined shelf of the cassette. The above is the flow of the process of processing one wafer by the conventional dicing apparatus.

[0003]

Generally, when grinding is performed using a diamond grindstone or a similar one, the sharpness is not always constant. This is because the diamond grindstone has a structure in which abrasive grains such as diamond abrasive grains are distributed in a bonding material called a bond material. The grinding ability of this whetstone is so high that the abrasive grains buried in the bonding material completely protrude, and the whetstone itself wears due to friction with the work material, etc. The protruding new abrasive grains maintain their grinding ability.

However, in the case of a new whetstone, since abrasive grains do not sufficiently project from the bond material, it is necessary to perform a dressing operation called dressing. In some cases, the grinding ability may gradually decrease during processing of the workpiece. In this case, too, the grinding ability can be restored by performing dressing. Dressing is performed by grinding a dedicated work material called a dressing board or a dress work of the same type as a product work such as a silicon mirror wafer, but the cutting depth and grinding speed are determined by the use of blades and grinding conditions of the product work. Depends on such factors. When performing dressing, the dress work is fixed to a dicing frame with an adhesive sheet in the same manner as the product work, and set in a dicing device in the same manner as the product work. Conventionally, dressing was performed by an operator performing dressing. Further, when the processing quality is reduced during the processing, the operator performs dressing or replaces the blade depending on the degree.

Incidentally, the cassette applied to the above-mentioned conventional dicing apparatus is a large-sized cassette accommodating a large number of works. Usually, the same type of work is stored and handled in this cassette, so if a dress work needs to be set in the device, it must be manually set in the work cutting section, which is extremely troublesome. is there.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides a dicing apparatus that can easily dress a cutting blade.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a work cutting section having a cutting blade for cutting a work, and a work storage section for storing a cassette containing a large number of works. When, in the dicing device having a conveying means for conveying the workpieces between the between the workpiece storage unit workpiece cutting part, in the dicing apparatus main body, met dresses work for dressing the cutting blade
And attached to the frame to make the state of one work
Dresswork and a dress that stores the dresswork
Cassettes and, the and the dress workpiece storage unit is provided for housing the dress cassette, one word attached to said frame between said with the dress workpiece storage unit workpiece cutting part
The above-mentioned work is transferred to the dress work
The transporting means can be transported by a transporting means .

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a dresswork storage section for storing a dresswork for dressing a cutting blade is provided in addition to a work storage section for storing a normal cassette. The dress work stored in the section is transported to the work cutting section and dressing is performed. Therefore, the present invention can easily dress the cutting blade.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the cut portion of the work cut by the cutting blade is imaged by the imaging means,
The dressing timing of the cutting blade is determined by the control unit based on the image of the cut portion captured by the imaging unit, and the dressing work is transferred to the work cutting unit by controlling the transfer unit when dressing is necessary. . By determining the timing of the dressing by the control means, the dressing is automatically performed when the processing performance is reduced, so that stable processing quality can be always maintained.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A dicing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a semiconductor wafer dicing apparatus 1 to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof. As shown in FIG.
The dicing apparatus 1 mainly includes a cutting unit 10, a cleaning unit 20, a cassette storage unit (work storage unit) 30, an elevator unit (transportation unit) 40, and a transportation unit (transportation unit) 50.
And so on.

The process of cutting the wafer W by the dicing apparatus 1 will be described. First, a plurality of unprocessed wafers W stored in the cassette storage unit 30 are sequentially pulled out by the elevator unit 40 and then drawn out. The wafer W is set at the position P4 shown in FIG. Next, the wafer W is transferred to the position P1 by the transfer device 50.
Is placed on the cutting table (position P2) of the cutting unit 10 via the preload stage of (1). Here, the wafer W is held by suction on the cutting table. The wafer W held by suction is subjected to image recognition of the pattern on the wafer W by the alignment units 18 and 19, and is aligned based on the image. Then, in the aligned wafer W, two streets are cut at the same time by the movement in the Y-axis direction indicated by arrows A and B of the cutting unit 10 and the movement in the X-axis direction indicated by arrows C and D on the cutting table. . When the first two streets are cut, the spindle of the cutting section 10 is moved in the Y-axis direction by the pitch of the streets, and the cutting table is moved again in the X-axis direction. As a result, the next two streets are cut. Repeat this cutting operation,
When the cutting of all the streets in one direction (X direction) is completed, the cutting table is rotated by 90 °, and the other direction orthogonal to the cut street (Y direction in FIG. 2).
Cut the streets in sequence. Thereby, the wafer W
Is finally cut in a grid pattern. In the present embodiment, the alignment units 18 and 19 are provided on the upstream side of the cutting unit 10, but the present invention is not limited to this.
May be provided on each of the carriages 72 and 74.

After the cut wafer W is returned to the position P2 by the cutting table, the transfer device 50
Is transported to the spinner table of the cleaning unit 20 at the position P3. Here, the wafer W is dried by the air blow after being washed with the washing water. The dried wafer W is transferred to the position P4 by the transfer device 50 and stored in the cassette unit 10 by the elevator unit 40. The above is the step of cutting one wafer W by the dicing apparatus 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cutting unit 10 of the dicing device 1 has a pair of cutting devices 14 and 16, and the cutting devices 14 and 16 include motors 60 and 62 and a spindle 6
4, 66, and blades 68, 70 mounted on the tips of the spindles 64, 66. The cutting device 1
4 and 16 are independently moved in the Y-axis direction by a spindle moving mechanism. In the present embodiment, a linear motor is applied as the spindle moving mechanism. The principle and the detailed structure of the linear motor are well known and will not be described here.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
Has a four-stage structure.
The dress work storage section 32, the first cassette storage section 34, the second cassette storage section 36, and the utility cassette storage section 38 are arranged in this order from the top. The first and second cassette storage sections 34 and 36 are storage sections for storing normal cassettes. These cassette storage units 34, 3
The cassettes stored in 6 can be taken out of the dicing apparatus main body by opening the doors 35, 37 with handles 35A, 37A provided on the doors 35, 37, respectively.
The normal cassette is a large cassette that stores a large number of wafers of the same type.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the structure of the dress cassette 80 stored in the dress work storage section 32. The dress cassette 80 includes two side plates 82 and 8.
2. It is composed of a top plate 84 and a back plate 86, and is more compact than a normal cassette that stores a large number of wafers. The two side plates 82 are connected by a top plate 84 and a back plate 86. A shelf for storing a small number of wafers W may be provided in this dress cassette.

On the upper surface of the top plate 84, cutting blades 68, 7
A mounting surface 85 on which a dressing dress W for dressing No. 0 is mounted is formed. The mounting surface 85 is formed in such a size that the mounted dress wafer W does not largely shift on the top plate 84. Therefore, the dress wafer W set on the placing surface 85 is set from above the dress cassette 80, then stored in the dress work storage section 32 and transported to the cutting section 10. In addition, the dress wafer W forms one work in a state where the dress wafer W is attached to the adhesive tape 92 on the frame 90.

The dress cassette 80 constructed as described above
Is stored by opening the shelf 33 of the dresswork storage section 32 shown in FIG. 1 with the handle 33A. Therefore, the dress wafer W set on the mounting surface 85 in FIG. 3 is set on the dress cassette 80 simply by opening the shelf 33. As described above, the dicing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is provided with the dress work storage section 32 for storing the dress cassette 80 of FIG. 3 in addition to the cassette storage sections 34 and 36 for storing normal cassettes. Was. When dressing the blades 68 and 70, the dress wafer W stored in the dress work storage unit 32 is transported to the cutting unit 10. Therefore, according to the dicing apparatus 1, the blades 68, 7
0 can be easily dressed.

On the other hand, in the utility cassette storage section 38 shown in FIG. 1, a utility cassette (not shown) for storing a dummy wafer W for trial cutting is installed. If a configuration similar to that of the dress cassette 80 shown in FIG. 3 is applied as the utility cassette, the dummy wafer W is stored in the utility cassette storage section 38.
Is opened in the utility cassette simply by opening the shelf 39 with the handle 39A. Note that, similarly to the first and second cassette storage sections 34 and 36, a shelf that stores the wafer W may be formed.

It should be noted that what is set in the utility cassette is not limited to the dummy wafer W, but may be a single wafer processing work or an inspection work for inspecting the cutting status of the blades 68 and 70. This greatly simplifies the setting and handling of the single-wafer processing work and the inspection work. On the other hand, each of the blades 68, 7
CCD cameras 42 and 42 are provided in the vicinity of 0, and a cut portion is photographed. The imaging signal from the CCD camera 42 is output to the control unit 44 as shown in FIG. The control unit 44 includes an image processing unit 46, a calculation unit 48, a RAM 52, a comparison unit 54, and a transport device control unit 56.

The image processing section 46 binarizes the image pickup signal output from the CCD camera 42, and the calculating section 48 calculates the chipping area from the obtained image of the cut portion. The comparing unit 54 compares the area of the chipping with the allowable area stored in the RAM 52, and as a result of the comparison, when the area of the chipping exceeds the allowable area, the transfer device control unit 56 controls the transfer device 50 to control the transfer device 50. The dress wafer W is transported to the cutting unit 10. As described above, the dressing is automatically performed when the chipping area exceeds the allowable area, so that the chipping area is maintained at or below the allowable area, and the stable processing quality can be always maintained.

[0021]

As described above, according to the dicing apparatus of the present invention, the dressing of the cutting blade can be easily performed by providing the dresswork storing portion for storing the dresswork for dressing the cutting blade. It can be carried out.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dicing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the dicing apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a dress cassette stored in a dicing device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a control unit of a transport device that transports the dresswork.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Dicing apparatus 10 ... Cutting part 32 ... Dress cassette storage part 38 ... Utility cassette storage part 44 ... Control part 60, 62 ... Motor 68, 70 ... Blade 80 ... Dress cassette 85 ... Wafer mounting surface W ... Wafer

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-7-169720 (JP, A) JP-A-1-301208 (JP, A) JP-A-5-326700 (JP, A) JP-A Sho 56- 164553 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/301 H01L 21/68

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A work cutting section having a cutting blade for cutting a work, a work storage section for storing a cassette containing a large number of works, and a work section between the work storage section and the work cutting section. And a conveying means for conveying the cutting blade. The dicing apparatus main body is a dresswork for dressing the cutting blade, the dressing being attached to a frame.
Dress work that is in the state of a single work
A dress cassette for storing the dress work; and the dress
And a dress workpiece storage unit provided for accommodating the cassette,
Between the dress work storage section and the work cutting section,
A dicing apparatus, wherein a dress work attached to a frame to form a single work can be conveyed by conveying means for conveying the work . 2. A dicing apparatus, comprising: an imaging unit configured to image a cut portion of a workpiece cut by the cutting blade; and a timing of dressing the cutting blade based on an image of the cut portion captured by the imaging unit. Judgment, controlling the transport means for transporting the work when dressing is necessary,
The dress cassette stored in the dress work storage section
The dicing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a control unit configured to convey the dress work drawn from the work to the work cutting unit. 3. A work cutting device having a cutting blade for cutting a work.
Store the cassette containing the cut section and a large number of workpieces.
For dressing the work storage part and the cutting blade
The dress cassette containing the dress work
Dress work storage section, the work storage section and the work
Transport means for transporting the work to and from the cutting section, and using the transport means for transporting the work, a dress work
Between the dress work storage section and the work cutting section.
By the dressing method of the cutting blade of the dicing machine to be conveyed
And transporting the work at the necessary time for dressing
Means stored in the dresswork storage section using
Transportable dress workpiece to said workpiece disconnect unit from less cassette
And grinding the dresswork with the cutting blade.
Dressing the cutting blade, and using a conveying means for conveying the work, a dress work
Is stored in the dress work storage section from the work cutting section.
Storing the cutting blade in the dressing cassette.
Dressing for cutting blades, characterized by dressing
Method. 4. A work cutting device having a cutting blade for cutting a work.
The cutting part and the cut part of the work cut by the cutting blade are photographed.
Imaging means for imaging, and a cassette containing a large number of workpieces
A work storage part for storing
Cassette with dress work for storing
A dress work storage section for storing the work storage section;
Conveying means for conveying a work to and from the work cutting section
And dressing work using a conveying means for conveying the work.
Between the dress work storage section and the work cutting section.
By the dressing method of the cutting blade of the dicing machine to be conveyed
There are, the imaging hand cut portion of the cut workpiece by said cutting blade
Imaging at a step, and a cutting blade based on the captured image of the cut portion.
A step of determining the time of dressing, the required time of dressing, transport for conveying the workpiece
Means stored in the dresswork storage section using
Transfer the dress work from the cassette to the work cutting section
And grinding the dresswork with the cutting blade.
Dressing the cutting blade, and using a conveying means for conveying the work, a dress work
Is stored in the dress work storage section from the work cutting section.
Storing the cutting blade in the dressing cassette.
Dressing for cutting blades, characterized by dressing
Method.