JPS5919352A - Semiconductor laser cleaving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately position a scratch for cleavage by mounting a diamond tool on one end, disposing a drive system on the other end, and providing a movable base which has the rotatable center of supporting by pneumatic bearing under static pressure at the intermediate. CONSTITUTION:A diamond tool 31 is disposed at one end of a shaft 34 which rotates in a direction of an arrow 33 around a rotating central line 32, and the shafts 35 mounted at both right and left sides of the shaft 34 are supported by pneumatic bearings 36 under static pressure with compressed air reservoir 49 and a diffusing nozzle 50. An air cylinder 38 which moves in a direction of an arrow 37 is disposed at the other end of the shaft 34, and driven by compressed air through an electromagnetic valve 39 and a speed controller 40. A wafer 41 is mounted on a vacuum attracting base 42 under the diamond tool 31, and the base 42 is provided on the bases 45, 46 disposed on a stationary trestle 48.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a semiconductor laser cleavage device for making cleavage scratches on a semiconductor laser wafer (hereinafter referred to as wafer) using a diamond tool.

Semiconductor laser devices are manufactured in large numbers on a wafer using semiconductor manufacturing techniques such as doping and etching. Then, individual elements are taken out from there, sealed in a package, and used. The process of removing laser elements from this wafer is carried out using a method called diamond scribing, in which a diamond tool is used to make a scratch at a predetermined position on the wafer, and the wafer is then cut open along the scratch. It is something to do. The cleavage plane obtained by this cleavage constitutes a parallel reflecting surface which is the most important part when the semiconductor laser device oscillates. Generally, in a semiconductor laser, this cleavage plane needs to be positioned with an allowable accuracy of several μm.

As described above, the semiconductor laser cleavage apparatus is required to make a scratch at a predetermined cleavage position on a wafer with high accuracy within an error of several μm.

The semiconductor laser cleavage device has X, which moves the wafer;
It consists of a Y moving table, a table that moves the diamond tool up and down, and a microscope that determines the opening position and observes the scratching situation. Semiconductor laser cleavage equipment, which places scratches on wafers with an error of several micrometers, is capable of highly accurate positioning, and the contact pressure between the smoothly moving X and Y moving table and the diamond tool can be adjusted in small amounts of several grams. A diamond tool vertical moving table is required to raise the diamond tool when moving to the cleavage open position and lower it at a predetermined position to bring it into contact with the wafer.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a conventional conductor opening device. A shaft 1 (hereinafter referred to as the diamond tool) with a diamond tool attached to its tip is fixed to a tube 2 by being pushed by a spring 3. This diamond tool 1 slides against each other on a sliding surface 4 in a tube 2, and is movable in the direction of an arrow 5.

The spring 3 has a structure in which the stiffness of the spring 3 can be changed by the screw 7 because the pressure of the diamond tool 1 against the semi-quartet laser wafer 6 (hereinafter referred to as wafer) changes. The tube 2 is fixed on a vertically movable table 8 driven by a screw feed of a motor 9 that can move in the direction of an arrow 5, and the vertically movable table 8 is mounted on a fixed frame 10. The wafer/% 6 is mounted via a vacuum suction table 11 on an X moving table 14 and an X moving table 15 which move in directions perpendicular to each other in the X direction of arrow 12 and the Y direction of arrow 13.

Both movable tables are moved by screws driven by motors 16, respectively.

Further, a microscope 19 is arranged for the purpose of determining the opening position and observing the state of scratching.

The work flow for making a hole in the device in the direction of arrow 13 is shown below.

(1) The cleavage position on the wafer 6 is determined using the microscope 19.

(2) The cylinder 2 is moved in the direction of the arrow 17 by the vertical moving table 8 to the position where the diamond tool 1 contacts the wafer 6 and a predetermined pressure is applied.

(3) The X moving table 15 moves in the direction of arrow 18 and causes damage.

However, the above-described apparatus has the following drawbacks in the vertically movable table 8 of the diamond tool 1.

(1) Since the diamond tool 1 slides inside the tube 2, there is always a gap in this part, and the reproducibility of repeatedly returning to the same position when the diamond tool 1 is lowered onto the wafer 6 is poor.

(2) It is impossible to adjust the contact pressure of the diamond tool 1 to the wafer 6 by a small amount of several grams because the base where stellate slip occurs exists between the diamond tool 1 and the tube 2. , furthermore, the amount also changes while remaining constant.

(3) In order to improve the reproducibility of the contact position with the Waeno 6 when the diamond tool 1 descends, the vertical moving table 8 is required to have high precision and high rigidity, and it is necessary to use a relatively heavy and large moving table. There is.

For the above-mentioned reasons, this raw conductor laser beam opening [te is
There was a serious problem with the vertically movable table 8 of the diamond tool 1, and it was impossible to make a crack for opening with a positioning accuracy of several μm.

The present invention has been made with attention to the above points, and an object thereof is to provide a semiconductor laser cleavage device capable of making highly accurate cleavage scratches on a wafer.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a high-precision, high-rigidity diamond tool with a diamond tool attached to one end, a drive system arranged at the other end, and a center of rotation supported by a hydrostatic air bearing in the middle. A semiconductor laser cleavage device is configured with a movable table.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a semiconductor laser cleavage device according to the present invention. A diamond tool 31 is disposed at one end of a shaft 34 that rotates in the direction of an arrow 33 around a rotation center line 32, and shafts 35 attached to both left and right sides of the shaft 34 are connected to an air pocket 49 of compressed air and its blowing nozzle. It has a structure in which it is supported by a static pressure air bearing 36 having a diameter of 50 mm. This rotational movement causes the diamond tool 31 to move up and down. An air cylinder 38 that moves in the direction of arrow 37 is attached to the other end of the shaft 34, and constitutes a drive system for vertically moving the diamond tool 31.

The air cylinder 38 is driven by compressed air via a solenoid valve 39 and a speed controller 40. The speed controller 4o is installed to adjust the vertical movement speed of the air cylinder 38. Also, the wafer 41 of the diamond tool 31 is attached to the shaft 34 part.
The structure is such that several heavy screws 42 are attached to adjust the pressure when pressed. A wafer 41 is mounted on a vacuum suction table 42 below the diamond tool 31, and a movable table 45, 46 that is moved by a screw feed by a motor 47 in directions perpendicular to each other as indicated by arrows 43 and 44 is mounted on a fixed pedestal 48 below the wafer 41. It is located in A microscope 49 is also provided for the purpose of observing this work and locating the wound for opening.

With the structure described above, the present invention has the following advantages: (1) The hydrostatic air bearing 36 allows smooth movement and highly accurate positioning and movement of the diamond tool 31, resulting in position repeatability of 1 μm or less. .

The static pressure air bearing 36 has a friction coefficient of almost O, and as long as there is no stellar slip, the contact pressure of the diamond tool 31 to the wafer 41 can be adjusted by a small amount of 1 gram or less using a weight, and the amount Always constant.

(3) The vertical movement speed of the diamond tool 31 can be easily adjusted by the speed controller 40, and the impact when the diamond tool 31 contacts the wafer 41 can be reduced.

As described above, it has become possible to cleave a semiconductor laser wafer with high precision using the semiconductor laser cleavage apparatus equipped with the present diamond tool vertically movable table.

In addition, the diamond tool vertical moving table according to the present invention is
It goes without saying that the same effect can be obtained if the SI element is applied to a diamond scribe device for extracting the SI element from Ueno.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional semiconductor laser cleavage device;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a semiconductor laser cleavage device according to the present invention. 1.31...Diamond tool, 6.41...Wafer, 11.42...Vacuum suction table, 19.49...
・Microscope, 36...static air bearing. Agent Patent Attorney Toshiyuki Usuda 1st 2nd fig.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A semiconductor laser wafer is placed at one end of the shaft, and a diamond tool for making a cleavage scratch is placed on the top, and the other part is equipped with a rotation center supported by a hydrostatic air bearing and its drive system to guide the vertical movement of the tool. A semiconductor laser cleavage device comprising a diamond tool vertically movable table equipped with a pressure mechanism on the shaft portion for adjusting the contact pressure of the diamond tool to the semiconductor laser wafer.