JPH0513569A - Semiconductor device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To apply photoresist uniformly all over a semiconductor wafer making a part of a scribe region flush with arm average plane of a semiconductor device. CONSTITUTION:Semiconductor devices 2aii, 2aji are arranged on a semiconductor wafer 1 such as silicon. They are roughly divided by scribe regions 3xi, 3xj and 3yi, 3yj which divide each of them; however, they are connected at a plurality of places of a peripheral part of each semiconductor device. In this case, the scribe region partially rises to be flush with an average plane on an upper surface of a semiconductor at a width of 20 to 30mum per 700 to 900mum. Since application solution thereby overflows from a groove part of the scribe region in rotational application of photoresist, etc., it is possible to apply photoresist uniform all over the semiconductor wafer.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a structure of a scribe region provided on a semiconductor wafer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a structure of a scribe region provided on a semiconductor wafer, a structure in which a wafer substrate is uniformly exposed is generally adopted as shown in FIG. This is for the purpose of facilitating cutting when the wafer is separated into pellets in a later step, and for keeping minute cracks that enter at this time in the scribe region. Further, there is a purpose of letting leak current flowing on the surface of the semiconductor device to the ground potential through the scribe region.

The scribe region having such a structure generally forms a step of about several μm with the plane of the upper surface of the semiconductor device, and the scribe region is usually a uniform groove.

[0004]

Because of this conventional scribe region having a uniform groove structure, the coating liquid is applied to the groove which is the scribe region in the semiconductor device manufacturing process, particularly in the spin coating process of photoresist or the like. Along with this, there is a drawback that the surface of the semiconductor wafer spreads and is not uniformly coated on the entire surface of the wafer. In particular, in the case of a very long and narrow semiconductor device such as a linear image sensor, the above-mentioned problems are prominently manifested because the scribe regions in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction on the wafer, that is, the number of grooves is extremely different.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the conventional drawbacks and provide a semiconductor device capable of uniformly coating a photoresist on the entire surface of a semiconductor wafer regardless of the shape of the semiconductor device.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A semiconductor device of the present invention is a semiconductor device having a plurality of semiconductor devices provided on a semiconductor wafer and a scribe region for separating these semiconductor devices. It has a structure on the same plane as the average plane of the semiconductor device.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention. Semiconductor devices 2a _ii , 2 on a semiconductor wafer 1 such as silicon
a _ji is placed. These semiconductor devices are divided into scribe areas 3x _i , 3x _j and 3y _i , 3
Although roughly divided by y _j, they are connected at a plurality of locations in the peripheral portion of each semiconductor device. In this case, the scribe area is 20 to 30 μm every 700 to 900 μm.
Of the semiconductor device is partially raised to have the same plane as the average plane of the upper surface of the semiconductor device.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the present invention. A part of the scribe area has a raised structure as in the first embodiment. This embodiment has a structure in which the scribe region is raised only in the long side portion of each semiconductor device which is particularly problematic in the manufacturing process of the semiconductor device.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, a part of the scribe region for separating a plurality of semiconductor devices on a semiconductor wafer is raised so as to be flush with the average plane of the semiconductor device. In spin coating of resist etc., the coating liquid overflows from the groove in the scribe area,
It has the effect that it can be applied uniformly over the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an example of a conventional semiconductor device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 semiconductor wafer 2a _ii , 2a _ji semiconductor device 3x _i , 3x _j , 3y _i , 3y _j scribe area

Claims (1)

1. In a semiconductor device having a plurality of semiconductor devices provided on a semiconductor wafer and a scribe region for separating these semiconductor devices, a part of the scribe region is an average of the semiconductor devices. A semiconductor device having the same surface as the target plane.