JP5875331B2 - Cutting equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cutting device for cutting a workpiece.

  Workpieces such as semiconductor wafers on which multiple devices such as IC and LSI are formed on the surface, resin substrates, various ceramic substrates, and glass substrates are divided into individual chips by a cutting machine, and the divided chips are used in various electrical equipment. Widely used in.

  The cutting apparatus includes a chuck table for holding a workpiece, a cutting means including a cutting blade having a cutting edge for cutting the workpiece held on the chuck table on an outer periphery, and a cutting fluid and cooling on the cutting blade being processed. It is comprised at least from the nozzle which supplies a liquid, and a to-be-processed object can be divided | segmented with high precision.

  Supplying a cutting fluid or a cooling fluid to the cutting blade is very important in terms of cooling the processing heat during processing and washing away cutting waste generated by the cutting from the upper surface of the workpiece.

  In a general cutting device, a cutting fluid is supplied from a cutting fluid nozzle provided on the leading side in the processing advancing direction toward the center of the cutting blade in the thickness direction, and a pair of cutting blades are provided so as to sandwich the cutting blade. Processing is performed while supplying the coolant from the side nozzle (coolant nozzle) to the cutting blade.

JP 2006-187849 A

  However, in the cutting apparatus provided with the cutting fluid nozzle that supplies the cutting fluid with the cutting blade from the leading side in the processing progress direction as described above and the cooling fluid nozzle that supplies the cooling fluid to the cutting blade from the side of the cutting blade, Since the cutting fluid and the cooling fluid are supplied toward the cutting blade, the cutting fluid or the cooling fluid is not directly applied to the cutting groove formed in the workpiece.

  As a result, cutting waste adheres to the work piece, and when the upper surface of the work piece dries in that state, the cutting waste adheres to the upper surface of the work piece and is very difficult to remove in a subsequent cleaning step. There's a problem.

  In particular, a workpiece on which a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD or CMOS, or an optical device such as an optical pickup element or a filter is formed on the surface has high water repellency (for example, a contact angle with pure water of 60 degrees). Therefore, the cutting scraps are easily fixed on the upper surface of the workpiece.

  In addition, multiple bar-shaped workpieces are arranged in the X-axis direction and sucked and held by the chuck table, and each workpiece is indexed and fed in the Y-axis direction to process one workpiece, and then the X-axis direction. For example, even in the cutting process of an ultrasonic vibrator, which repeatedly processes a workpiece adjacent to the workpiece, there is a property that cutting scraps are easily fixed on the workpiece.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to prevent the upper surface of the workpiece from drying and prevent the cutting chips from adhering to the workpiece. It is to provide a cutting device.

According to the present invention, there is provided a cutting apparatus for cutting a workpiece, including a chuck table that holds the workpiece, a spindle that is rotationally driven, and a spindle that cuts the workpiece held on the chuck table. Cutting means including a cutting blade attached to the tip, a spindle housing that rotatably supports the spindle, a blade cover attached to the spindle housing and covering the cutting blade, the chuck table, and the cutting means And a blade feed cover, and a blade feed cover for moving the chuck table and the cutting means relative to each other in an index feed direction perpendicular to the process feed direction. A cutting fluid nozzle that is disposed on the leading side in the machining progress direction and supplies the cutting fluid toward the cutting blade; It is disposed so as to extend in the working direction of travel behind the Dokaba, the cleaning liquid curtain forming means for forming a cleaning liquid curtain comprising a cleaning liquid for cleaning a workpiece, have a, the cleaning liquid curtain forming means, said cutting A first cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle having a cleaning liquid ejecting portion disposed on one surface side of the blade and extending from the blade cover to the rear side in the processing progress direction; and disposed on the other surface side of the cutting blade. A second cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle having a cleaning liquid spraying portion extending from the blade cover to the rear side in the processing progress direction, wherein the first cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle and the second cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle respectively eject the cleaning liquid cutting device is provided along a direction extending parts, characterized in that have a plurality of washing liquid jetting slit.

Preferably, the plurality of cleaning liquid ejection slits of the first cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle and the plurality of cleaning liquid ejection slits of the second cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle are alternately formed.

  Since the cutting apparatus of the present invention includes a cleaning liquid curtain forming means for forming a cleaning liquid curtain made of a cleaning liquid for cleaning the workpiece on the rear side in the processing progress direction of the blade cover, the upper surface of the processed workpiece is dried. There is no. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the chips from adhering to the workpiece.

It is a perspective view of the cutting device concerning the embodiment of the present invention. It is a disassembled perspective view which shows the relationship between a spindle and the cutting blade (washer blade) which should be mounted | worn with a spindle. It is a front view of the blade cover which concerns on this invention embodiment. FIG. 4 is a left side view of the blade cover shown in FIG. 3 as viewed from the rear side in the processing progress direction. It is a front view of the blade cover which is processing the workpiece.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a perspective view of a cutting device 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention that can cut a workpiece and divide it into individual chips.

  On the front side of the cutting apparatus 2, an operation panel 4 is provided for an operator to input instructions to the apparatus such as machining conditions. In the upper part of the apparatus, a display monitor 6 such as a CRT on which a guidance screen for an operator and an image captured by an imaging unit described later are displayed is provided.

  A plurality of workpieces are aligned and stuck on a support substrate made of, for example, a silicon wafer or a glass substrate, and a plurality of support substrates are accommodated in the cassette 8 shown in FIG. The cassette 8 is placed on a cassette elevator 9 that can move up and down.

  Behind the cassette 8, a loading / unloading unit 10 is provided for unloading the workpiece before cutting from the cassette 8 and loading the workpiece after cutting into the cassette 8. Between the cassette 8 and the carry-in / out unit 10, a temporary placement area 12, which is an area on which a workpiece to be carried in / out, is temporarily placed, is provided. A pair of alignment bars 14 are provided for aligning the object at a certain position.

  A transport unit 16 having a swivel arm that sucks and transports the workpiece is disposed in the vicinity of the temporary placement region 12, and the workpiece transported to the temporary placement region 12 is sucked by the transport unit 16. Then, it is conveyed onto the chuck table 18 and sucked and held by the chuck table 18.

  The chuck table 18 is configured to be rotatable and reciprocally movable in the X-axis direction (machining feed direction), and an area to be cut of the workpiece is provided above the movement path of the chuck table 18 in the X-axis direction. An alignment unit 20 for detection is provided.

  The alignment unit 20 includes an imaging unit 22 having a microscope and a CCD camera for imaging the surface of the workpiece, and detects an area to be cut by image processing such as pattern matching based on an image acquired by imaging. Can do. The image acquired by the imaging unit 22 is displayed on the display monitor 6.

  On the left side of the alignment unit 20, a cutting unit 24 for cutting a workpiece held on the chuck table 18 is disposed. The cutting unit 24 is configured integrally with the alignment unit 20, and both move together in the Y-axis direction (index feed direction) and the Z-axis direction.

  The cutting unit 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 which are index feed directions. The cutting blade 28 is located on the extended line of the imaging unit 22 in the X-axis direction.

  After the chuck table 18 holding the workpiece after cutting is returned to the home position, the workpiece is sucked from the chuck table 18 by the transport unit 25 and transported to the spinner cleaning unit 27, where the spinner cleaning unit is used. 27, spin cleaning and spin drying.

  Referring to FIG. 2, a spindle 26 that is rotationally driven by a servo motor (not shown) is rotatably accommodated in a spindle housing 30 of the cutting unit 24. A blade mount 32 is detachably fixed to the tip of the spindle 26 with a nut 40.

  The blade mount 32 includes a boss portion 34 and a fixed flange 36 formed integrally with the boss portion 34, and a male screw 38 is formed on the boss portion 34. Further, the blade mount 32 has a mounting hole.

  The blade mount 32 is attached to the tip end portion of the spindle 26 by inserting a mounting hole into the tip end portion of the spindle 26 and screwing the nut 40 into a male screw formed at the tip end portion.

  Reference numeral 28 denotes a washer-shaped cutting blade, which is entirely composed of an electroformed cutting blade (electroforming grindstone). The cutting blade 28 is inserted into the boss portion 34 of the blade mount 32, the detachable flange 42 is further inserted into the boss portion 34, and the fixing nut 44 is screwed into the male screw 38 and tightened, whereby the cutting blade 28 is fixed to the fixing flange 30. And is attached to the spindle 26 by being sandwiched from both sides by the detachable flange 42.

  Referring to FIG. 3, a front view of a blade cover 46 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. FIG. 4 is a left side view of the blade cover 46. As shown in FIG. 4, the blade cover 46 has an opening from which the cutting blade 28 protrudes to cover the periphery of the cutting blade 28.

  The blade cover 46 has a cleaning liquid curtain made of a cleaning liquid that extends from the blade cover 46 to the opposite side (the rear side in the processing progress direction) indicated by the arrow X2 shown in FIG. 5 to clean the workpiece. A cleaning liquid curtain forming unit 50 to be formed is disposed.

  The cleaning liquid curtain forming unit 50 has a block 51 fixed to the blade cover 46. The block 51 includes a cleaning liquid curtain pre-formation nozzle (first cleaning liquid curtain formation nozzle) 54a and a cleaning liquid curtain formation rear nozzle (second cleaning liquid curtain formation nozzle) 54b that are extended in the X-axis direction.

  The front ends of the cleaning liquid curtain formation nozzle 54 a and the cleaning liquid curtain formation rear nozzle 54 b are attached to the small block 52, and the small block 52 is supported by a support plate 48 having one end fixed to the block 51.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the nozzle 54a before forming the cleaning liquid curtain has cleaning liquid ejection slits 56a that are equally spaced in the X-axis direction. A plurality of cleaning liquid ejection slits 56a constitutes a cleaning liquid ejection part 58.

  Similarly, the cleaning liquid curtain formation rear nozzle 54b also has a plurality of cleaning liquid ejection slits 56b (see FIG. 5) that are equally spaced in the X-axis direction, and the plurality of cleaning liquid ejection slits 56b constitute a cleaning liquid ejection part.

  As schematically shown in FIG. 5, the cleaning liquid ejection slit 56a formed in the nozzle 54a before the cleaning liquid curtain formation and the cleaning liquid ejection threads 54b formed in the cleaning liquid curtain rear nozzle 54b are alternately in the X-axis direction. Is formed.

  In the present embodiment, the cleaning liquid ejection slits 56a and 56b extend in the Y-axis direction. The extending direction of the cleaning liquid ejection slits 56a and 56b is not limited to this, and may be formed to extend in the X-axis direction or may be formed in a spot shape.

  On the rear side of the blade cover 46, an L-shaped cleaning liquid nozzle 64 that extends in the direction of the cutting blade 28 is disposed. The cleaning liquid sub-nozzle 64 has three cleaning liquid ejection slits 66 on one side spaced apart in the X-axis direction. As shown in the enlarged view of FIG. 4, the three cleaning liquid ejection slits 66 are located at the same position in the X-axis direction. Is formed. Therefore, the cleaning liquid sub-nozzle 64 has nine cleaning liquid ejection slits 66 in total.

  The nozzle 54a before forming the cleaning liquid curtain and the nozzle 54b after forming the cleaning liquid curtain are selectively connected to the cutting liquid supply source 60 via a switching valve (not shown). Similarly, the cleaning liquid sub nozzle 64 is also selectively connected to the cutting liquid supply source 60. As the cleaning liquid, pure water or a liquid obtained by blowing carbon dioxide into pure water is used.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, a cutting fluid nozzle 70 that supplies cutting fluid toward the outer periphery of the cutting blade 28 is disposed on the front side of the blade cover 46 in the processing progress direction. The cutting fluid nozzle 70 is selectively connected to a cutting fluid supply source 72 via a switching valve (not shown). As the cutting fluid, pure water or a liquid obtained by blowing carbon dioxide into pure water is used.

  Next, with reference to FIG.4 and FIG.5, the cutting operation of the workpiece by the cutting apparatus 2 of embodiment mentioned above is demonstrated. The workpiece 11 is made of, for example, piezoelectric ceramics such as PZT (lead zirconate titanate), and a plurality of workpieces 11 are stuck on a support substrate 13 made of a silicon wafer, a glass substrate, or the like at a predetermined interval.

  When cutting the workpiece 11, the chuck table 18 is rotated so that the plurality of workpieces 11 are aligned in the X-axis direction. Therefore, each workpiece 11 extends on the Y-axis direction and is disposed on the support substrate 13 as shown in FIG.

  Before the workpiece 11 is cut, the imaging unit 22 images the workpiece 11 and performs alignment for detecting a region to be cut. After the alignment is performed, the cutting blade 28 is rotated at a high speed (for example, 30000 rpm) and cut into the leftmost workpiece 11 in FIG. 5, and the chuck table 18 is processed and fed in the direction of the arrow X1, and the leftmost workpiece is processed. A cutting groove is formed in the object 11.

  At the time of this cutting process, the cutting is performed while supplying the cutting liquid from the cutting liquid nozzle 70 provided on the leading side in the processing advancing direction indicated by the arrow X2 in FIG.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the cleaning liquid is ejected from the cleaning liquid ejection slit 56a of the cleaning liquid curtain formation nozzle 54a and the cleaning liquid ejection slit 56b of the cleaning liquid curtain formation rear nozzle 54b arranged on the rear side in the processing progress direction X2. The cleaning liquid front curtain 62a and the cleaning liquid rear curtain 62b are formed.

  As shown in FIG. 5, since the cleaning liquid ejection slit 56a of the cleaning liquid pre-formation nozzle 54a and the cleaning liquid ejection slit 56b of the rear cleaning liquid curtain formation nozzle 54b are formed alternately, the front cleaning liquid curtain 62a collides with the rear cleaning liquid curtain 62b. Thus, the cleaning liquid curtains 62a and 62b are not disturbed, and the cutting is performed while the cleaning liquid is uniformly supplied to the workpiece 11 held on the chuck table 18.

  Further, the cleaning liquid is also ejected from the cleaning liquid ejection slit 66 of the cleaning liquid sub-nozzle 64, and the cutting is performed while the cleaning liquid curtain 68 is formed as shown in FIG.

  In this way, since the cutting process is performed while sufficient cleaning liquid is supplied to the rear side in the processing progress direction X2 during the cutting process, the cleaning liquid is also supplied into the formed cutting groove, and the machining waste in the cutting groove is removed. It can be washed away with a cleaning solution.

  When one cutting groove is formed in the leftmost workpiece 11 in FIG. 5, the machining feed of the chuck table 18 is stopped, the cutting blade 28 is indexed and fed in the Y-axis direction, and then the chuck table 18 is fed. To form a second cutting groove. By repeating this, all the cutting grooves necessary for the leftmost workpiece 11 are formed.

  Next, similar machining steps are repeated for adjacent workpieces 11 to form a plurality of cutting grooves. By repeating this processing step, a plurality of cutting grooves are formed in all the workpieces 11 held on the chuck table 18.

  During the cutting process, the cutting is performed while forming the cleaning liquid curtains 62a, 62b, 68 on the rear side in the processing progress direction, so that the cleaning liquid has been cut even while the rightmost workpiece 11 is being cut. Since the workpiece 11 is sufficiently supplied to the upper surface of the workpiece 11 and does not dry the workpiece 11 after machining, it is possible to prevent the cutting scraps from adhering to the workpiece 11.

  The workpiece 11 according to the above-described embodiment is a long and narrow workpiece disposed on the support substrate 13, but the workpiece that can be cut by the cutting apparatus of the present invention is not limited thereto. Even when cutting a general wafer-shaped workpiece stuck to a dicing tape, the machined workpiece is not dried and the cutting waste adheres to the workpiece. Can be prevented.

2 Cutting device 11 Workpiece 13 Support substrate 18 Chuck table 24 Cutting unit 28 Cutting blade 46 Blade cover 50 Cleaning liquid curtain forming unit 54a Cleaning liquid curtain before forming nozzle 54b Cleaning liquid curtain forming rear nozzle 64 Cleaning liquid sub nozzles 56a, 56b, 66 Cleaning liquid ejection slits 70 Cutting fluid nozzle

Claims (2)

A cutting device for cutting a workpiece,
A chuck table for holding the workpiece;
A spindle that is driven to rotate, a cutting blade that is attached to the tip of the spindle that cuts a workpiece held on the chuck table, a spindle housing that rotatably supports the spindle, and a spindle housing that is attached to the spindle housing A blade cover covering the cutting blade, and a cutting means,
A machining feed means for relatively moving the chuck table and the cutting means in a machining feed direction;
Index feed means for relatively moving the chuck table and the cutting means in an index feed direction orthogonal to the machining feed direction;
The blade cover is disposed on the front side in the processing progress direction and supplies a cutting fluid nozzle toward the cutting blade;
A cleaning liquid curtain forming means arranged to extend from the blade cover to the rear side in the processing progress direction and forming a cleaning liquid curtain made of a cleaning liquid for cleaning the workpiece;
I have a,
The cleaning liquid curtain forming means includes:
A first cleaning liquid curtain nozzle with a cleaning liquid ejection portion extending in the working direction of travel behind from the blade cover is arranged on one side of the cutting blade,
A second cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle having a cleaning liquid jetting part disposed on the other surface side of the cutting blade and extending from the blade cover to the rear side in the processing progress direction;
Only including,
First cleaning liquid curtain nozzle and the second cleaning liquid curtain nozzle, respectively, cutting device characterized in that it have a plurality of washing liquid jetting slit along the direction of extension of the cleaning liquid ejection portion. 2. The cutting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of cleaning liquid ejection slits of the first cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle and the plurality of cleaning liquid ejection slits of the second cleaning liquid curtain forming nozzle are alternately formed. .

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