Article Abstracts | January 2008
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Laser Dicing Technique Cuts Wafers from the Inside Out
Technique overcomes some of the limitations of traditional dicing methods.
by Maridel Lares, Hamamatsu Corp.
Wafer fabs continually face challenges in manufacturing semiconductor devices because the devices continue to get tinier and more complicated. Integrated circuits continue to increase in circuit density. Trends in chip design and materials, such as using die attach films and wafers as thin as 50 μm, add to the complexity of manufacturing.
In fabrication processes, wafer dicing plays an early and critical role in the quality of the final product. Two conventional methods for dicing wafers — blade dicing and laser ablation dicing — pulverize the wafer material in the cutting path (known as dicing street or kerf). In doing so, these techniques can cause problems such as debris, damage to the device and loss of precious semiconductor material...
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