High speed wafer dicing with ablation laser cut

Abstract

Conventional blade dicing is well known as standard process for semiconductor wafer singulation. As of to-date, wafer technologies employed many changes such as larger wafer diameter, thinner chip ≤ 100μm and heavy metal structure in the saw street. Consequently, unforeseen defects such as longer sawing time lead to wafer bond pad corrosion, chip crack and larger backside chipping arised. Blade dicing can no longer fulfill the demands of new emerging types of semiconductor devices. New chips separation methods are investigated here. Laser cutting is a relatively recent technology that offers the solution for high-speed dicing for thin wafer. Main focus in this paper is established of ablation laser cut method for discrete devices and pre-production experiences. Others laser cut technologies are qualitatively discussed.