JP5885454B2 - Ablation processing method for substrate with passivation film laminated - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ablation processing method for a substrate on which a passivation film for performing ablation processing by irradiating a laser beam onto a substrate on which a passivation film formed of nitride is stacked.

  A wafer such as a silicon wafer or a sapphire wafer formed on the surface by dividing a plurality of devices such as IC, LSI, LED, etc. by dividing lines is divided into individual devices by a processing device such as a cutting device or a laser processing device, The divided devices are widely used in various electric devices such as mobile phones and personal computers.

  A dicing method using a cutting device called a dicing saw is widely used for dividing the wafer. In the dicing method, a wafer is cut by cutting a wafer into a wafer while rotating a cutting blade having a thickness of about 30 μm by solidifying abrasive grains such as diamond with metal or resin at a high speed of about 30000 rpm. Divide into devices.

  On the other hand, in recent years, a laser beam is formed by ablation processing by irradiating the wafer with a pulsed laser beam having a wavelength that is absorptive to the wafer, and the wafer is cut along a cutting device along the laser processing groove. A method of dividing into individual devices has been proposed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-305420).

  Laser processing groove formation by ablation processing can increase the processing speed compared to the dicing method using a dicing saw, and relatively easily processes even a wafer made of a material having high hardness such as sapphire or SiC. be able to.

  Further, since the processing groove can be made narrow, for example, 10 μm or less, it has a feature that the amount of devices taken per wafer can be increased as compared with the case of processing by the dicing method. .

JP-A-10-305420 JP 2007-118011 A

However, when a semiconductor substrate such as a wafer is irradiated with a pulsed laser beam having an absorptive wavelength (for example, 355 nm), the energy of the absorbed laser beam reaches the band gap energy, destroying the bonding force of atoms and ablation processing. However, if a passivation film made of a nitride such as Si ₃ N ₄ is laminated on the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate, diffusion of the laser beam energy and reflection of the laser beam occur, and the energy of the laser beam is reduced. There is a problem that energy loss is large because it is not sufficiently used for ablation.

  Further, there arises a problem that the laser beam transmitted through the passivation film performs ablation processing on the semiconductor substrate and destroys the passivation film from the inside.

  The present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ablation processing method for a substrate on which a passivation film capable of suppressing energy diffusion and laser beam reflection is laminated. It is.

According to the present invention, there is provided an ablation processing method for a substrate on which a passivation film is formed by irradiating a laser beam on a substrate on which a passivation film made of nitride is stacked, and at least the substrate to be ablated A protective film forming step of forming a protective film containing fine powder by applying a liquid resin mixed with a fine powder of nitride that absorbs the wavelength of the laser beam to the region of the laser beam, and the protective film forming step And a laser processing step of performing ablation processing by irradiating the region of the substrate on which the protective film is formed with a laser beam, and the average particle size of the fine nitride powder is smaller than the spot size of the laser beam. And the laser beam spot diameter is 10 μm or less, the wavelength of the laser beam is 355 nm or less, End is, AlN, ZrN, HfN, ablation processing method of a substrate in which the passivation film is laminated, which comprises a hexagonal BN and nitride selected from the group consisting of TiN is provided.

  The method for ablation processing of a substrate on which a nitride passivation film of the present invention is laminated is a liquid resin in which a fine powder of nitride having absorptivity with respect to the wavelength of a laser beam is mixed in at least a region of the substrate to be ablated. Since the protective film is formed by coating, the laser beam is absorbed by the fine powder of nitride, reaches the band gap energy, and the bonding force of the atoms is broken, so that the ablation processing is applied to the passivation film in a chain. In addition, the ablation processing of the substrate on which the passivation film is stacked is performed efficiently and smoothly by suppressing the diffusion of energy and the reflection of the laser beam.

It is a perspective view of the laser processing apparatus suitable for implementing the ablation processing method of this invention. It is a block diagram of a laser beam irradiation unit. It is a perspective view of the semiconductor wafer supported by the annular frame via the adhesive tape. It is sectional drawing of the semiconductor wafer on which the passivation film formed from nitride was laminated | stacked. It is a perspective view which shows a liquid resin application | coating process. It is a perspective view which shows an ablation process process. It is a perspective view of the semiconductor wafer supported by the cyclic | annular flame | frame via the adhesive tape of the state which ablation processing was complete | finished.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of a laser processing apparatus suitable for carrying out the ablation processing method for a substrate on which a passivation film of the present invention is laminated.

  The laser processing apparatus 2 includes a first slide block 6 mounted on a stationary base 4 so as to be movable in the X-axis direction. The first slide block 6 is moved along the pair of guide rails 14 in the machining feed direction, that is, the X-axis direction, by the machining feed means 12 including the ball screw 8 and the pulse motor 10.

  A second slide block 16 is mounted on the first slide block 6 so as to be movable in the Y-axis direction. That is, the second slide block 16 is moved in the indexing direction, that is, the Y-axis direction along the pair of guide rails 24 by the indexing feeding means 22 constituted by the ball screw 18 and the pulse motor 20.

  A chuck table 28 is mounted on the second slide block 16 via a cylindrical support member 26, and the chuck table 28 can be moved in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction by the processing feed means 12 and the index feed means 22. . The chuck table 28 is provided with a clamp 30 for clamping the semiconductor wafer sucked and held by the chuck table 28.

  A column 32 is erected on the stationary base 4, and a casing 35 for accommodating the laser beam irradiation unit 34 is attached to the column 32. As shown in FIG. 2, the laser beam irradiation unit 34 includes a laser oscillator 62 that oscillates a YAG laser or a YVO4 laser, a repetition frequency setting unit 64, a pulse width adjustment unit 66, and a power adjustment unit 68. .

  The pulse laser beam adjusted to a predetermined power by the power adjusting means 68 of the laser beam irradiation unit 34 is reflected by the mirror 70 of the condenser 36 attached to the tip of the casing 35 and further collected by the condenser objective lens 72. The semiconductor wafer W is irradiated with light and irradiated onto the chuck table 28.

  At the tip of the casing 35, an image pickup unit 38 that detects the processing region to be laser processed in alignment with the condenser 36 in the X-axis direction is disposed. The image pickup unit 38 includes an image pickup device such as a normal CCD that picks up an image of a processing region of a semiconductor wafer with visible light.

  The imaging unit 38 further includes an infrared irradiator that irradiates the semiconductor wafer with infrared rays, an optical system that captures infrared rays irradiated by the infrared irradiator, and an infrared CCD that outputs an electrical signal corresponding to the infrared rays captured by the optical system. An infrared imaging unit composed of an infrared imaging element such as an image sensor is included, and the captured image signal is transmitted to a controller (control means) 40.

  The controller 40 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 42 that performs arithmetic processing according to a control program, a read-only memory (ROM) 44 that stores a control program, and a random read / write that stores arithmetic results. An access memory (RAM) 46, a counter 48, an input interface 50, and an output interface 52 are provided.

  Reference numeral 56 denotes a processing feed amount detection means comprising a linear scale 54 disposed along the guide rail 14 and a read head (not shown) disposed on the first slide block 6. Is input to the input interface 50 of the controller 40.

  Reference numeral 60 denotes index feed amount detection means comprising a linear scale 58 disposed along the guide rail 24 and a read head (not shown) disposed on the second slide block 16. The detection signal is input to the input interface 50 of the controller 40.

  An image signal captured by the imaging unit 38 is also input to the input interface 50 of the controller 40. On the other hand, a control signal is output from the output interface 52 of the controller 40 to the pulse motor 10, the pulse motor 20, the laser beam irradiation unit 34, and the like.

  As shown in FIG. 3, on the surface of a semiconductor wafer (semiconductor substrate) W that is a processing target of the laser processing apparatus 2, the first street S1 and the second street S2 are formed orthogonally, A number of devices D are formed in an area partitioned by one street S1 and second street S2.

Further, as best shown in FIG. 4, a passivation film 11 made of nitride is laminated on the device surface of the semiconductor wafer W. The passivation film 11 is formed of silicon nitride such as Si ₃ N ₄ or SiN (Si _x N _y ).

  The wafer W is attached to a dicing tape T that is an adhesive tape, and the outer periphery of the dicing tape T is attached to an annular frame F. Thus, the wafer W is supported by the annular frame F via the dicing tape T, and is supported and fixed on the chuck table 28 by clamping the annular frame F by the clamp 30 shown in FIG.

  In the ablation processing method for a substrate on which a passivation film is laminated according to the present invention, first, a fine powder of nitride having absorptivity with respect to the wavelength of the laser beam is mixed in a region to be ablated on a semiconductor wafer (semiconductor substrate) W. A liquid resin application step of applying the liquid resin is performed.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the liquid resin supply source 76 is made of PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) mixed with fine nitride powder (for example, AlN) that absorbs the wavelength of the laser beam (for example, 355 nm). A liquid resin 80 is stored.

  By driving the pump 78, the liquid resin 80 stored in the liquid resin supply source 76 is supplied from the supply nozzle 74 to the surface of the wafer W, and the liquid resin 80 is applied to the surface of the wafer W. Then, the liquid resin 80 is cured to form a protective film 82 mixed with fine nitride powder that absorbs the wavelength of the laser beam.

  As a method for applying the liquid resin 80 onto the surface of the wafer W, for example, a spin coating method in which the wafer W is applied while rotating can be employed. In this embodiment, AlN is adopted as a fine powder of nitride mixed in a liquid resin such as PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) or PEG (polyethylene glycol).

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the liquid resin 80 containing fine nitride powder is applied to the entire surface of the wafer W to form the protective film 82. The protective film may be formed only on the street S1 and the second street S2.

  In the present embodiment, the semiconductor wafer W is formed from a silicon wafer. Since the absorption edge wavelength of silicon is 1100 nm, ablation processing can be smoothly performed by using a laser beam having a wavelength of 355 nm or less. The average particle diameter of the nitride fine powder mixed in the liquid resin is preferably smaller than the spot diameter of the laser beam, for example, smaller than 10 μm.

  In the present embodiment, AlN, ZrN, HfN, hexagonal BN, and TiN can be employed as the fine powder of nitride. Table 1 shows the extinction coefficient (extinction coefficient) k of these metal nitrides. Incidentally, there is a relationship of α = 4πk / λ between the extinction coefficient k and the absorption coefficient α. Here, λ is the wavelength of light to be used.

  After performing the liquid resin coating process to form the protective film 82 on the surface of the wafer W, a laser processing process by ablation processing is performed. In this laser processing step, as shown in FIG. 6, a pulse laser beam 37 having a wavelength (for example, 355 nm) having an absorptivity for fine powder of nitride in the semiconductor wafer W and the protective film 82 is collected by a condenser 36. While condensing and irradiating the surface of the semiconductor wafer W, the chuck table 28 is moved in the direction of the arrow X1 in FIG. 6 at a predetermined processing feed speed, and laser processing grooves 84 are ablated along the first street S1. Form.

  While indexing and feeding the chuck table 28 holding the wafer W in the Y-axis direction, similar laser machining grooves 84 are formed by ablation along all the first streets.

  Next, after the chuck table 28 is rotated 90 degrees, similar laser processing grooves 84 are formed by ablation along all the second streets S2 extending in the direction orthogonal to the first streets S1. FIG. 7 shows a perspective view of the state in which the laser processing grooves 84 are formed along all the streets S1 and S2.

  The laser processing conditions of this embodiment are set as follows, for example.

Light source: YAG pulse laser Wavelength: 355 nm (third harmonic of YAG laser)
Average output: 0.5-10W
Repetition frequency: 10 to 200 kHz
Spot diameter: φ1-10μm
Feeding speed: 10 to 100 mm / sec

  The substrates include, for example, Si, SiGe, Ge, AlN, InAlN, InN, GaN, InGaN, SiC, and GaAs substrates.

  According to the ablation processing method for a substrate on which a passivation film is laminated according to the present embodiment, a liquid resin 80 mixed with fine nitride powder that absorbs the wavelength of the laser beam is applied to the surface of the wafer W for protection. Since the ablation process is carried out after the film 82 is formed, the energy of the laser beam is absorbed by the fine nitride powder, reaches the band gap energy, and the bonding force of the atoms is broken, thereby the passivation film 11 is chained. Is ablated.

  Therefore, the diffusion of energy and the reflection of the laser beam are suppressed, and the ablation process is efficiently and smoothly performed. The fine nitride powder mixed in the liquid resin serves as a processing accelerator.

  After forming the laser processing grooves 84 along all the streets S1 and S2, the dicing tape T is radially expanded by using a well-known braking device, and an external force is applied to the wafer W. The wafer W is divided into individual devices D along the laser processing grooves 84.

W Semiconductor wafer T Adhesive tape (dicing tape)
F annular frame D device 2 laser processing apparatus 11 passivation film 28 chuck table 34 laser beam irradiation unit 36 condenser 80 fine powder-containing liquid resin 82 protective film 84 laser processing groove

Claims (1)

An ablation processing method for a substrate on which a passivation film is laminated, wherein a substrate on which a passivation film made of nitride is laminated is irradiated with a laser beam to perform ablation processing,
A protective film forming step of forming a protective film containing fine powder by applying a liquid resin mixed with fine powder of nitride having absorptivity with respect to the wavelength of the laser beam to at least the region of the substrate to be ablated;
A laser processing step of performing an ablation process by irradiating a laser beam to a region of the substrate on which the protective film is formed after performing the protective film forming step ;
The average particle diameter of the fine powder of nitride is smaller than the spot diameter of the laser beam, and the spot diameter of the laser beam is 10 μm or less,
The laser beam has a wavelength of 355 nm or less, and the nitride fine powder includes a nitride selected from the group consisting of AlN, ZrN, HfN, hexagonal BN, and TiN. Ablation processing method for the processed substrate.

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