JPH09134892A - Semiconductor wafer dicing method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily carry out a zero point adjustment of a semiconductor wafer dicing device by a method wherein the edge of a dicing blade is brought into contact with a metal reference plane provided near the periphery of a dicing tape to be adjusted in level. SOLUTION: A semiconductor wafer 1 is fixed to a tape 2, and the tape 2 is also fixed to a metal ring 3 by bonding. The wafer 1 is vacuum-chucked, and the metal ring 3 is fixed to the wafer fixing table 4 by a magnet. A blade 5 is aligned with a scribe line on the wafer 1, and the wafer 1 is diced. The edge of the blade 5 is brought into contact with a metal reference plane provided near the periphery of the tape 2 to be adjusted in level. That is, the edge of the blade 5 is brought into contact with the surface 3-1 of the metal ring 3 exposed near the periphery of the tape 2 or the surface 4-1 of a stage near the periphery of the metal ring 3 to be adjusted in level. The blade 5 can be replaced at any time and easily adjusted in level.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dicing method and apparatus for dividing a semiconductor wafer into a plurality of chips, and more particularly to improvement of a reference surface for adjusting the height of the blade of a dicing blade.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A large number of devices such as electronic devices such as integrated circuits, optical devices such as laser diodes and photodiodes, or optoelectronic integrated circuits in which electronic devices and optical devices are combined are formed on a semiconductor wafer. When the semiconductor wafer is divided into individual devices, a dicing device is usually used.

As shown in FIG. 2, a general dicing apparatus is capable of rotating a wafer fixing table 13 which is horizontally movable, and a semiconductor wafer 11 fixed on the wafer fixing table, which can be rotated at a high speed so as to be vertically advanced and retracted. The dicing blade 12 is provided, and the semiconductor wafer is divided by cutting the center line of the scribe line formed between the devices with the dicing blade under the control of the controller (Japanese Patent Application No. 118
No. 50).

As a method for dicing a semiconductor wafer, a semiconductor wafer 1 to be cut as shown in FIG. 3 (c) is attached to a tape 2, and the tape 2 is adhesively fixed to a metal ring 3 to fix the wafer. It is gripped on the table 4. At this time, the central portion is fixed by the vacuum suction 6, and the metal ring 3 in the peripheral portion is fixed by the magnet 7. After the scribe line S and the blade are aligned, FIG.
After the dicing in the ch1 direction is performed as shown in, the wafer fixing table 4 is rotated by 90 ° and the dicing for the ch2 is performed. The dicing is performed on the wafer 1 so that the cut semiconductor chips can be easily conveyed by the collet in the subsequent process.
Not only that, it is carried out by a so-called full cut, which bites slightly into the surface of the tape 2. In order to make a full cut, it is first necessary to set up the blade at the standard height. Therefore, before fixing the wafer 1 on the wafer fixing table 4, the blade is brought into contact with the surface of the central portion 4-0 of the wafer fixing table, and the height of the blade at this time is set to the reference plane 4-.
It was 0. The presence or absence of contact is confirmed by electrical conduction.

[0005]

When performing the dicing according to the above procedure, first, all the lines for ch1 are automatically performed, and the cutting state of the wafer is inspected before dicing for ch2. At this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, the cut groove is allowed due to deterioration of the blade or the like.
In some cases, chipping may occur between the scribe lines S of the book. If dicing of ch2 is performed in this state, deterioration of the blade progresses and a defective product is created. So, after the dicing of ch1 is over, replace the blade, make a perfect circle, dress,
After the height zero point adjustment, ch2 dicing is continued.

However, conventionally, the wafer 1 has to be removed from the wafer fixing table 4 once in order to perform the zero adjustment of the height. At this time, the tape is in a state of being released from a state of being tensioned by vacuum suction. Even if it is fixed to the wafer fixing table again, as shown in FIG.
As shown in, the scribe lines of ch2 are not aligned and it is difficult to restore. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a dicing method for semiconductor wafers and an apparatus therefor capable of improving the zero-pointing method and smoothly exchanging blades to continue dicing.

[0007]

In the dicing method according to the present invention, a semiconductor wafer is adhered and fixed on a dicing tape, and the dicing tape is adhered and fixed on a metal ring, respectively. A method for dicing a wafer after the metal ring portions are fixedly held on the stage surface by magnets and the scribe line and the blade are aligned, and the cutting edge of the dicing blade is moved to the dicing tape prior to dicing. The height of the cutting edge is adjusted by bringing it into contact with a metallic reference surface provided in the vicinity of the outer periphery of the blade.

Further, the dicing apparatus according to the present invention is
A semiconductor wafer, a tape for adhesively fixing the semiconductor wafer to the surface, and a metal ring for adhesively fixing the peripheral portion of the tape,
A wafer fixing table that firmly holds and holds a dicing tape and a metal ring on the surface, a disc-shaped dicing blade that cuts the semiconductor wafer, and a dicing device that includes a surface that serves as a height reference of a dicing blade edge. The reference surface is a metallic flat surface provided near the outer periphery of the dicing tape.

[0009]

According to the above-mentioned structure, the present invention provides a metal surface provided near the outer circumference of the dicing tape (for example, the surface of the metal ring exposed near the outer circumference of the dicing tape or the metal surface exposed near the outer circumference of the metal ring). Since the surface of the wafer fixing table etc.) is used as the reference surface, it is not necessary to change the equipment in particular, and the height can be easily adjusted when the blade is replaced.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the description of the drawings, the same elements will be denoted by the same reference symbols, without redundant description. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the dicing apparatus 10 used in this embodiment. As shown in the figure, the dicing apparatus 10 is provided with a semiconductor wafer 11
Has a dicing blade 12 as means for cutting
Further, it has a wafer fixing table 13 as a wafer fixing means for fixing the semiconductor wafer 11.

The dicing blade 12 is a support column 1.
It is attached to a spindle 16 of a spindle head 15 which is supported by 4. The support column 14 is fixed to a bed 17 which is a fixed structure so as to be vertically inorganic, and the spindle head 15 is vertically moved along the support column 14. The main shaft 16 extends in the horizontal direction and is rotated at high speed.

On the other hand, the wafer fixing table 13 is the bed 1
It is attached to the upper surface of 7 and can move linearly along two horizontal axes that are orthogonal to each other. The upper surface of the wafer fixing table 13 is a horizontal wafer fixing surface 18
The surface 18 is rotatable in both forward and reverse directions about the vertical axis. The semiconductor wafer 11 is fixed on the wafer fixing surface 18 by vacuum suction while being attached to the dicing tape 19.

Furthermore, the dicing apparatus 10 of this embodiment
In the lower part of the spindle head 15, a CCD camera 20 as an image pickup means for picking up an image of the surface of the semiconductor wafer 11 is provided. The CCD camera 20 can image an area adjacent to the dicing blade 12. Further, the CCD camera 20 is connected via an A / D converter 21 to a computer 22 which is an image pickup processing means.

The analog information of the image picked up by the CCD camera 20 is digitized by the A / D converter 21 and input to the computer 22. The computer 22 can perform image processing on the input image information according to an appropriate algorithm to detect the position of the cutting line. The position information of the cutting line detected by the computer 22 is input to the controller 23 that controls the rotation of the dicing blade 12, the vertical movement of the spindle head 15, and the horizontal movement of the wafer fixing table 13, and the semiconductor wafer is cut along the cutting line. It is designed to cut 11.

FIG. 1 is an enlarged view of the dicing apparatus according to this embodiment. In the figure, a semiconductor wafer 1, a dicing tape 2 for adhesively fixing the semiconductor wafer to the surface, and a metal ring 3 for adhesively fixing the peripheral portion of the dicing tape.
A dicing apparatus having a wafer fixing table 4 for fixing and holding a tape and a metal ring on the surface, a disc-shaped dicing blade 5 for cutting a semiconductor wafer, and a surface 7 or 8 serving as a height reference of a blade edge. The reference surface 4-1 is a metallic flat surface provided near the outer circumference of the tape 2.

Here, using the surface 3-1 of the metal ring 3 exposed in the vicinity of the outer periphery of the tape or the surface 4-1 of the wafer fixing table 4 in the vicinity of the outer periphery of the metal ring as a reference surface is particularly advantageous for equipment. Is not necessary, and since the reference surface is always exposed, the height of the blade can be adjusted at any time, and the operation is simple, which is preferable in practice. The semiconductor wafer 1 was GaAs with a diameter of 3 inches, and the dicing tape 2 was a vinyl chloride sheet having elasticity.

In the method for dicing a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention, the semiconductor wafer 1 is adhered and fixed on the tape 2, and the tape 2 is adhered and fixed on the metal ring 3, respectively. A method of dicing the wafer 1 after the wafers are fixed and held on the surface of the wafer fixing table 4 by magnets, respectively, and the scribe line and the blade 5 are aligned with each other. Prior to dicing, the blade tip of the blade 5 is taped. 2 is characterized in that the height of the cutting edge is adjusted by bringing it into contact with a metallic reference surface provided near the outer circumference of the tape 2. More specifically, the metal that exposes the cutting edge of the blade 5 near the outer circumference of the tape 2. Ring surface 3-
1 or the stage surface 4 near the outer circumference of the metal ring 3
It is a method of adjusting the height of the cutting edge by bringing it into contact with -1.

GaAs with a diameter of 3 inches and a thickness of 600 μm
Wafers typically require about 100 dicings. On the other hand, since the dicing blade can normally perform dicing of about 10,000, the dicing blade was replaced after every 100 wafers, and one cutting failure occurred each time. However, by changing the reference surface to the surface of the metal ring or the surface of the wafer fixing table exposed near the outer periphery of the metal ring, the dicing blade can be replaced at any time, and blade height adjustment is easy. In addition, it was possible to suppress the occurrence of defects due to dicing.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A reference surface is a metal surface provided near the outer circumference of the dicing tape (for example, the surface of the metal ring exposed near the outer circumference of the dicing tape or the surface of the wafer fixing table exposed near the outer circumference of the metal ring). Therefore, it is not necessary to change the equipment, and the height can be easily adjusted when the blade is replaced. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the processing time of dicing and suppress the occurrence of defects due to dicing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged view of a dicing apparatus according to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a dicing apparatus used in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view (a) and a cross-sectional view (b, c) for explaining a conventional dicing method.

FIG. 4 is a plan view for explaining a dicing method.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view for explaining a dicing method.

FIG. 6 is a plan view for explaining a dicing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Semiconductor wafer 2: Dicing tape 3: Ring 3-1: Reference surface 4: Wafer fixing table 4-0, 4-1: Reference surface 5: Dicing blade 6: Vacuuming 7: Magnet 10: Dicing device 11: Semiconductor Wafer 12: Dicing blade 13: Wafer fixing table 14: Support column 15: Spindle head 16: Spindle 17: Bed 18: Wafer fixing surface 19: Dicing tape 20: CCD camera 21: A / D converter 22: Computer 23: Controller S: Scribe line

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A semiconductor wafer is adhered and fixed on a dicing tape, and the dicing tape is adhered and fixed on a metal ring, the wafer portion is vacuum-adsorbed, and the metal ring portion is fixedly held on a stage surface by a magnet. A method of dicing the wafer after aligning the scribe line and the blade, and prior to dicing, the cutting edge of the dicing blade is a metallic reference surface provided near the outer periphery of the dicing tape. A method for dicing a semiconductor wafer, which comprises adjusting the height of a cutting edge by contacting with the cutting edge. 2. The dicing of a semiconductor wafer according to claim 1, wherein the height of the cutting edge is adjusted by bringing the cutting edge of the dicing blade into contact with the metal ring surface exposed near the outer periphery of the dicing tape. Method. 3. A semiconductor wafer, a tape for adhering and fixing the semiconductor wafer to the surface, a metal ring for adhering and fixing the peripheral portion of the tape, a wafer fixing table for fixing and holding the dicing tape and the metal ring on the surface, and the semiconductor. A dicing device comprising a disk-shaped dicing blade for cutting a wafer and a surface serving as a height reference of a dicing blade edge, wherein the reference surface is a metallic flat surface provided in the vicinity of the outer periphery of the dicing tape. A semiconductor wafer dicing device characterized by: 4. The dicing apparatus for a semiconductor wafer according to claim 3, wherein the reference surface is a surface of a metal ring exposed near the outer periphery of the dicing tape.