Plasma etching and stealth dicing laser process

摘要

Consistent with an example embodiment, a method for preparing integrated circuit (IC) device die from a wafer substrate having a front-side with active devices and a back-side, comprises mounting the front-side of the wafer onto protective foil. A laser is applied to saw lane areas on the backside of the wafer, at a first focus depth to define a modification zone; the modification zone defined at a pre-determined depth within active device boundaries and the active device boundaries defined by the saw lane areas. The protective foil is stretched to separate IC device die from one another and expose active device side-walls. With dry-etching of the active device side-walls, the modification zone is substantially removed.

主权项

1. A method for preparing integrated circuit (IC) device die from a wafer substrate having a front-side with active devices, the active devices having boundaries defined by saw lanes, and a back-side, the method comprising:
mounting the front-side of the wafer onto protective foil; applying a laser to saw lane areas on the back-side of the wafer, at first focus depth to define a modification zone, wherein the modification zone is a layer with a changed crystalline structure that is between crystalline layers of the wafer, and is defined at a depth below a surface of the wafer and within active device boundaries; stretching the protective foil to separate IC device die from one another and expose active device side-walls; and dry-etching the active device side-walls including removing the changed crystalline structure at the depth below the surface and between the crystalline layers in cut areas of the wafer, so that the modification zone is substantially removed.